Real and True

Highlights of the show: my scheduling issue was resolved (so I didn’t have to leave early), I didn’t miss any classes, I got to pet a cat in the parking lot, and I finished piecing a quilt block. 

But I have no big winners to show you because I didn’t have any. 

I did walk away with seven NAN cards and about 25 ribbons, but a lot of them were lower placings in small classes. Not terrible, but not the experience I was hoping to have. 

We all end up having less-than-ideal showing experiences at some time or another, and this was one of mine, alas. I even tanked in the two Collectibility classes I entered: I think that was the point where I mentally checked out and went in whole hog on my sewing project. 

(I usually bring one anyway because I’m the kind of person who has to overprepare for everything, but I rarely have to break it out.)

I probably won’t be live showing again until early next year. Not because of this experience, but because I have too many other things I need to take care of in the next three months, including the health-related issues I’ve been alluding to. And I have to start planning my next great “adventure” later in the Fall (this is something completely different from next year’s Grand Wyoming Excursion. She says mysteriously...) 

I have also been informed that I “need to” show at BreyerFest Live next year, which means I have to ramp up my sales now, because there is no way I can fit both a show string and a ton of sales items in my car simultaneously. 

The selling part is something I’ve been planning on doing anyway; I wanted to get some of the prep done for that this weekend, but the weather and my slightly bummed disposition got in the way.

In the meantime, here’s a picture of a thing I bought a little while ago that’s not what you think it is:

Aside from the fact that the Clydesdale Stallion was not officially a part of the Presentation Collection, he also lacks the USA mold mark, which means he was manufactured no later than 1970, or a year before the official introduction of the program in 1971. 

The base is different, too: it’s beveled along one edge, not all four. 

I’ve seen a few other Breyers floating around with similar bases, and there’s always been a bit of a mystery about their origin and/or authenticity. Personally, I have come around to the idea that these oddly-based models may have been a part of the “Desk Trophies” program offered by Robbins Metal Craft:

http://breyerhistorydiva.blogspot.com/2010/04/charolais-specials-part-ii.html

Robbins was based in Missouri, and a sticker on the bottom of the base indicates that it was made by a company in St. Louis that (I assume) manufactured trophies and such. Hmm.

The only problem here is timeline. The weathervane brochure dates to the mid-1970s, but the Clydesdale itself is pre-1971. If the trophy program ran for five years (or so), these things should be… slightly more common than they actually are, right? Or at least as common as the official Breyer pieces.

Then there’s the possibility that the Clydesdale might have been a promo item relating to the Budweiser Clydesdales, also based in Missouri. Maybe the company that was tapped to do them was later contracted by Robbins? 

I could spend all day spinning crazy theories to explain his existence. But like most things, chances are that the real and true explanation of his existence is going to end up being a very simple and obvious one.   

Presenting...

Back in June of last year, I said this in passing about the possibility of completing my Bell-bottomed Shire collection:

(The Chalky Sorrel and the Glossy Dapple Gray are sufficiently out of reach that I am not even going to consider them a part of my list. Sort of the way I ignore the Presentation Series Man o’ War, until/if/when it happens.)

Dear readers, it happened:

He has a few (mostly minor) condition issues, a slightly sunken-in shoulder, and all that’s left of his brass nameplate is the stickum.

He also smells of cigarette smoke, but I swear virtually every Breyer model I’ve had that has been mounted on a wooden base – trophy, clock, sales awards, et al – has smelled this way. Wood is porous and absorbent, and way more people smoked in the early 1970s, back when these things were new.

In other words, it was not unexpected.

It’s also a pretty easy fix – clean it with warm water and good quality dish soap, and give it some time. For really bad cases of “the stinks”, sealing the offending model in a trash bag with an open box of baking soda for a couple weeks also helps.

Most of the minor condition issues will be fixed also, but the sunken shoulder (also not an uncommon issue with models of this era) will not. I’m undecided on the nameplate; it’s a common enough problem that it doesn’t bother me that much, especially considering the price I paid for it.

Well within my budget? Oh, yes. 

Y’all know my collecting philosophy by now: unless you are one of those people blessed with extraordinary good luck, you must either invest time, or money. Since the only luck I have is in living where model horses are relatively plentiful, and I grew up in a family where paying full retail for anything is almost a sin, time is my currency by necessity.

And my patience has paid off: except for some obscure variations, the 1970s Dapple Gray, and (sigh) Riddle, I’ve managed to come as close as possible to completing my Traditional Man o’ War collection as I probably can, without going into serious debt.

There are still a few Regular Runs I need to get, like a Spectacular Bid without staining, a General Lee’s Traveler without massive paint goobers, and some box/packaging variants. Another Test Color would be awesome, but unlikely unless I get insanely lucky or Reeves just randomly sends me one.

Not a bad consolation prize for not going to Seattle, I must say.

Presenting Itself

I just happened to be in That part of town where That farm store is, and what’s sitting on the shelf waiting for me? I swear, I was there just to see if they might have one of those Rocky Mountain Horses!


A glossy Valentine and Heartbreaker set. Sigh. I couldn’t just leave them there, either. Who knows whose hands they’d have fallen into? I had to rescue them! Such a quandary - keep, or sell to one of my regular customers, who’s still looking?

Argh! Time to futilely list more items on MHSP while I decide. (If any of you are interested in a cheap thrill or two, all my listings include postage, just to simplify things. Sometimes when you start dickering about postage, it slows the process down. Money’s great, but I want ‘em gone, too.)

(BTW, that store still had a couple of older Zenyattas from last year, if anyone’s still looking, and any deal needs sweetening.)

To clarify the book scanner thing: book dealers go to used book sales with handheld devices that can tell them how much a book’s current resale value is; if it’s greater than what the book sale is charging, they’ll buy it for their inventory.

I go to used book sales for (a) cheap/obscure reads, (b) to add to my collection, and (c) to stock my BreyerFest sales stash with fun little extras. I don’t make enough to justify buying a scanner, plus I think it’s tacky and a buzzkill. There are some sales that ban the use of scanners outright, though the local sale is not one of them, unfortunately.

I might be listing a few of my better sale books on MHSP too, once I run out of horses to list. Nothing expensive there, either. (Sorry, no Paul Browns - those are keepers!)

So yeah, I saw the Presentation Man o’ War on eBay; I didn’t even bother bookmarking it for later. It went for well over double what I could theoretically pay. Paying for my teeth and my tires take priority right now.

You know, it wasn’t that long ago that Presentation Series pieces were considered … well, not all that big a thing. A lot of collectors then (as now) weren’t too keen on the whole attached base thing. Why spend extra for one with a base, when you could get a freestanding one cheaper? It was nerdy-cool to have a few in your collection - especially if you were a completist - but they weren’t the high demand budget-busters they are now.

Some have been found in this area - mostly Adios, which is not a surprise: there used to be a number of Standardbred farms in the area. The Adios model itself is a fairly easy find around here. I’ve come close: I’ve found a few mounted trophy-like things, but no true Presentation pieces, yet.

I’d be happy with any of them. I’m not particular; I only "need" one for the collection. Aside from cost and rarity, those bases take up an ungodly amount of shelf space: it just wouldn't be practical. Now, I wouldn't turn down a nice-sized collection of them if they did happen to fall in my lap somehow, but what are the odds of that?

(Yeah, I know, it's me we're talking about. When, not if, etc.)

Charolais Specials, Part II

Clearly, there was some sort of relationship between Robbins Metal Craft and Breyer, beyond that of buyer and supplier: Breyer was not only manufacturing models specifically for the company, they were providing them photographs for their sales brochure.

But here’s the funny thing: there’s no mention of the word Breyer in the brochure. There was no mention of Breyer in the packaging either, or at least in the one complete Weathervane I purchased off of eBay several years ago:


Yep, the Simmental Bull, Mint in Box. It cost me a pretty penny - way more than I usually spend - but it was shortly after I had sold one of those early AQHA Ideal Quarter Horses, also MIB, for an almost equally absurd sum, so it worked out for me. (Remember the astronomical sums people were paying for them, not that long ago? Ah, the mysterious economy of eBay!) Here's a better shot of the assembly instructions:


I think I got the better deal, of course - how many MIB Breyer Weathervanes are out there, anyway - and a special run, to boot? But, I digress.

So how do we classify these things? My first tendency is to classify all of them - even the "Regular Run" items - as Special Runs, but with the eternal caveat: only if you’ve got the evidence or provenance to prove it. Just like the fakesters out there glossing up run-of-the-mill regular run critters, anybody could - theoretically - drill a hole through any given model and claim it’s a Weathervane SR.

The kind of evidence you’d need would be something like the original box, the original weathervane it was mounted on, or the visible evidence that it was factory painted after - not before - being drilled. (A fully assembled and mounted weathervane in a showring? Now that’d be a sight to behold!)

Just how rare are these things, anyway? It’s hard to tell. If you do a little Internet snooping, you can even see that Robbins is still in business, and still has a few Breyer weathervanes in stock:

http://www.robbinslightning.com/full_bodied.php

http://www.xpressweb.com/linton/fwv/ (click on "full-bodied" link)

It’s hard to judge which models were made, in what quantity, and over what period of time. It’s conceivable that the SRs might have been better sellers than the "regular run" items, or that many of the items listed in the brochure were never made at all - or if so, only in limited quantities. It’s yet another topic that merits much further research. For what it’s worth, the contents of my Simmental’s box were wrapped in a local Missouri newspaper, ca. 1985 (the company is based in Missouri, so I’m assuming it was original) so the SR Bulls were made, or were available, at least that long.

Another complication is the fact that, while mighty durable, Breyers don’t make ideal weathervane ornaments. If a few years of continuous exposure to the elements didn’t do most of them in, the lightning strikes certainly would have.

So, what’s the relationship between the weathervane SRs and the plain old undrilled SRs? Did Robbins sell the undrilled SRs, or were they available to other retailers and mail-order companies?

Anecdotal evidence documented in Nancy Young’s Breyer Molds & Models mentions an order form with numbers identical to the ones seen in the brochure, seen by a hobbyist lucky enough to find the (undrilled) livestock SRs for sale at a flea market back in 1985. Whether that order list was from Robbins, or another supplier, is unknown. (I’d like to think so, but I’d prefer to know so.)

Another wrinkle in this story is something from the brochure I didn’t show you last time:


Does that mean Desk Trophies = Presentation Collection? The photo is in black and white, and too murky to make out the base in any detail. I don’t think anyone has ever established who was responsible for mounting the Presentation pieces - I had always assumed someone more local to the factory, like the Riegseckers.

It truly leaves me at a loss for words. Was Robbins involved in the manufacture of the original Presentation Collection? Was it a continuation of the old program, or something new? Does that mean that the Presentation Collection may have led to the creation of the Weathervane SRs? If these models were a continuation of the Presentation program somehow, how do we classify them?

Gah! It makes my head hurt more than it already does.

To end on a slightly more amusing note, here’s a vintage Robbins ad from a 1981 Kentucky newspaper:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1696&dat=19811106&id=2e8aAAAAIBAJ&sjid=MEcEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6619,1704732

Ouch! I was kinda wondering how they’d mount the Fighting Stallion on the rod. Poor, punctured King!