Now this is exciting...This afternoon I've been stripping Zaphod's stand. Other things I should be doing, but the hell with it.
And to my great excitement, I found under layers of red, crimson and white paint, the stencilled legend PATENTED JAN 29 1880. You can click on the photo to see it better.
There's the same thing in Patricia Mullins The Rocking Horse (the rocking horse bible) on page 92; a horse she dates as 1880s - 1890s.
So Zaphod may be 120 years old. Or three quarters of him is...
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For another example of a J & G Lines with a stencil, take a look at this website: The Rocking Horse Stables.
2 comments:
Congratulations on that find! Did you suspect you would discover something that identifies Zaphod as from that decade? That is exciting. Mary
Hi Mary,
No, I wasn't expecting that at all. I thought the horse was pre-WW1, probably earlier, because of the look of him. Nice to think he was around when my grandparents were young.
It's difficult to date old horses precisely. Every little clue helps.
Good modern makers, like Stevenson Brothers, put on a brass plate with the year and the horse's number. This will make it easy for restorers a hundred years hence!
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