Meet Galadriel (I wonder if any of my readers will know where that name comes from)… The Horse was originally sold in a Whitney Reed catalog in the 1890’s through 1915. I’ve never heard of a Whitney Reed Catalog, have you? Sound like a Sears and Roebuck. This particular horse could have been made anywhere in that time frame. I contacted two experts in the field of antique rocking horse restoration, and they both agreed it was a great find, but definitely the antique value degraded because it had been painted over and most of the tack was not original. SO, that meant I had free license to do what I pleased with it as it would only increase in value with restoration work.
I decided to leave the base as is, it is original, and I used only the medallions from the tack that he was found with, as they are also original. His eyes are what he was “born” with too. The rest was acetoned and painted over with Amitha Verma chalk paint, several shades of grey, with a wax finish also sold by that company. Painters tape was used to help me create the dapples. I ordered horse tail hair on line for the mane and tail and leather swatches from Amazon to make the new “tack”. Some upholstery tacks were used for attaching the new leather.
This is how I found him… oh, the joy of the find….
