Why is This Model Horse Smiling?

This Mortens Studio Pinto was owned, for much of its life, by an Illinois horse lover whose first initial was F.  She collected model horses for much of her life. Many of the horses F. owned pre-date what we consider the "organized" model horse hobby, which began to take shape in the late 1960s. 

This fellow dates to at least the mid-1940s, if not earlier.

When F. passed away about 40 years ago, the Pinto and her other model horses went to her family, and over the weekend they were kind enough to sell me her collection.

The Pinto looks happy. And he should be, because a) he was loved; and b) he's a survivor. It is difficult to find a Mortens Studio animal, with its heavy metal frame under a ceramic and plaster body that has been painted and glazed, in such great condition. In short -- the finish cracks and chips very easily. 

Mortens Studio horses are not in great demand by 21st century collectors, but they do have their fans, who are charmed by their personalities and their history.

F. put tiny stickers on many of her horse figurines, and wrote down who had given them to her. She noted that horse was given to her by one of her children, and that it was "one of my favorites." This horse was dearly loved and cherished, and now he seems happy to be here.

We see the Mortens Studio Pinto horse in Sears Christmas ads in the Upper Midwest and the South, dating from 1945. World War II was over, the soldiers were home or nearly home, and it was time to decorate the house with something meaningful. The Pinto and another horse are identified as "Western Style" and "English Style," perhaps referring to the colors.

You can see that his spot pattern is similar to the horse in the ad. Variations are common in hand-painted figurines.

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A bit of background on Mortens Studio:

It's common to see such horse figurines referred to as being by "Morten Studio" or "Morten's Studio," but the correct spelling of their creator's last name is Mortens, with an S at the end.

Oscar Wilhelm Mortenson (1878-1962) only created animal figurines for a few decades, and not much is known about his company. Born in Skahult, Sweden, Mortens studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm and the Berlin Academy of Art. He came to the US in 1923.

Source: US Federal Naturalization Records, via Ancestry.com

We see him living in Illinois and taking part in art exhibitions in the early 1930s, and applying for US citizenship in 1935. He had his name legally changed to Oscar Mortens in 1940. Newspaper articles call him a "well-known Chicago sculptor."

DeKalb, IL Daily Chronicle, 1 December 1932

Some accounts say that Mortens started his ceramics business in 1931. The first newspaper ads I see for Mortens Studio horses are from 1943. By the mid-1950s, Mortens was selling not only horse figurines but also horse head plaques. They were marketed as ornaments and paperweights. Like other horse figurines of that era, the prospective buyer was seen as a man, rather than a woman or child. These Mortens Studio horse plaques were "for Dad's den or office." 

Many hobbyists believe that most Mortens Studio dogs, cats, and livestock are more realistic than the company's horse figurines.

Mortens Studio English Setter puppies.
Each bears a sticker that says, "I am an English Setter."

Mortens Studio Persian cat.

Decatur, IL Herald and Review,
11 December 1955

Mortens Studio cow, as seen at an antique mall.

In 1942, Oscar Mortens and his wife, psychiatrist Dr. Selma Colbe Mortens, bought property near Santa Cruz, California. In 1947, the couple moved to Phoenix, Arizona for his health. The 19 October 1952 Arizona Republic ran the following article on them. Mortens told the Republic that he wanted to mass-produce ceramics because commissions for sculptures were few and far between. Mortens started out creating plaques of famous Hollywood celebrities, but the only one that sold well was of humorist Will Rogers; the University of Oklahoma bought them for its students.

Mortens said, "Then I tried animals, horses first, then dogs and other animals. They caught on immediately. Now we have a factory in Chicago, and I spend a great deal of time back there." 

Oscar Mortens died in Phoenix in September 1962, and is buried in Chicago.

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Here's a link summarizing Mortens' career, with photos of some of his work: 

https://www.oscarmortens.com/

Ferseyn, *Raseyn, and "Racine"

Certain images in this post are provided under the Fair Use provision in Section 107 of the United States Copyright Act. "Fair Use" specifically allows for the use of copyrighted materials for educational purposes only.

This is a crossover post, because it touches on California's equine history as well as model horse figurine history.

Breyer Model Horses recently issued a set of three color variations on its "Classic Arabian Stallion" mold, for members of its Collectors Club. 

"Zayn," a 2024 Breyer Collectors Club offering. 
https://www.breyerhorses.com/search?q=zayn*

The folks at Breyer are to be commended for mentioning that the mold was originally designed by artist Maureen Love (1922-2004).

Hagen-Renaker "Ferseyn"

A plastic Breyer "Classic Arabian Stallion"
and the ceramic Hagen-Renaker "Ferseyn." 

The Arabian stallion Ferseyn

Inspired by the real Arabian stallion Ferseyn (*Raseyn x *Ferda), Maureen created the design for the California pottery Hagen-Renaker, Inc. which released him in ceramic starting in 1958. Breyer first issued the mold in plastic, as the Classic Arabian Stallion, in 1973.

Breyer is calling this 2024 release of the design "Zayn," apparently a takeoff on the name "Ferseyn." And that's a lovely name for him. (As I write, model horse hobbyists are discussing the release of "Zayn" with great excitement.)

Obviously pronunciations can differ depending on the speaker, but I believe that, back in his day, "Ferseyn" was pronounced more like Fer-SEEN than Fer-SANE, to rhyme with "rain." I've also heard it pronounced somewhere in between "seen" and "sane."

Ferseyn's name was a combination of his dam's name, *Ferda, and his sire, *Raseyn.

Ferseyn as a colt, in the Fresno Bee newspaper. *Ferda had been sold
to rancher Fred Vanderhoof when she was carrying Ferseyn.

A young Ferseyn, in Western Livestock Journal

The older Ferseyn, also in Western Livestock Journal,
when he was owned by Herbert H. Reese 

It makes sense that Ferseyn would rhyme with *Raseyn. And we know how people in the 1920s-1940s pronounced *Raseyn -- with a long E at the end. 

*RASEYN at the Kellogg Ranch, 1926

W. K. Kellogg bought *Raseyn from the Crabbet Stud in England in 1926, adding the stallion to his herd in Pomona, California. (*Raseyn has an asterisk * before his name, to indicate he was imported to the US from another country and registered with the Arabian Horse breed registry in this country.)

Sculptor Annette St. Gaudens pronounced *Raseyn's name in this old newsreel clip, at about 37 seconds in to the film, which is only about a minute and a half long.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyZhqxVdSnI

Ms. St. Gaudens had homes in Claremont, California and in New Hampshire. Newspaper accounts said the sculptor had planned to take it back to New Hampshire with her, cast it in bronze there, and exhibit it in New York. 

The Kellogg House on the campus of Cal Poly Pomona now has her sculpture of *Raseyn, closed away in a cabinet with trophies won by some of  the Arabians and Percherons of the Kellogg Ranch. They took little *Raseyn out for his photo shoot during the 75th anniversary of the Kellogg Arabian Horse Ranch; his picture appears in Mary Jane Parkinson's The Romance of the Kellogg Ranch.

We also hear *Raseyn's name pronounced about six seconds into this 1932 newsreel outtake, then again at about 4:19. (Be sure to come back here to finish the story, after you get lost in this film.)

https://digital.tcl.sc.edu/digital/collection/MVTN/id/5355/rec/13?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1JTFDxQQrJLjzlZaig8UbnLNLTx2sB7fPxVa48WF2P19m8R8TTaBpnXAI_aem_AaZqQAPcwKLR-dh7PRebZPicO8Aj6uZjgF2X51tBADfykOfvZ_cr-8hJoV9FEuJerFynwJ_ozzP6P7icw8we04jT

The beauty of this video is that we can see *Raseyn in action, almost throughout. At about 8:03 we see *Raseyn and Antez at a trot and canter under saddle. 

*Raseyn was a favorite subject for several artists. Here he poses with his friend Miss Gladys Brown (Edwards) in 1934. 

Wesley Dennis tried his hand at drawing *Raseyn for Esquire magazine in the 1930s. Since he apparently lived in Massachusetts and Virginia, Dennis may have been using a photograph as reference, rather than having visited the Kellogg Ranch himself.

Sculptor Lawrence Tenney Stevens (1896-1972) also captured *Raseyn, this time in an Art Deco style. There's one small copy in the Kellogg House on the Cal Poly Pomona campus, and another one in the collection of the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library, also on the Cal Poly Pomona campus.  

WKKAHL notes that Stevens created the portrait in 1934.

Why do I think it was *Raseyn who posed for sculptor Stevens?  Because of two articles that ran in the Palm Springs, California Desert Sun during World War II.A local insurance broker and realtor, Herbert Samson, had been given a copy of the equine head study by Stevens, who had lived in the area.  Samson boxed up the artwork to send it to Stevens and stored it in the trunk of his car. Then thieves stole the box. 

The November 10, 1944 issue of the Sun did not name the Kellogg Arabian...

But a later issue of the Sun, did name the horse. The paper repeated Stevens' appeal for the return of the horse sculpture on December 1, 1944, and this time the reporter identified the subject of the art.  

Interestingly, though not surprisingly, the newspaper didn't spell *Raseyn's name correctly. They spelled it like the city in Wisconsin: "Racine."

"It all started some years ago when Stevens was a resident here and a close friend of Herbert Samson, modelled Racine, famous Arabian stallion at the Kellogg ranch near Pomona." (emphasis mine)

I have never been able to find out whether that stolen copy was recovered. 

I don't think *Raseyn, or Ferseyn, would have cared if we pronounced their names to rhyme with "SEEN" or "SANE" or somewhere in between. The important thing is that we appreciate and cherish their memories, and their huge impact on Arabian horses in the 20th century.  

And now thanks to the Breyer Zayn, their legacy continues!

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Here's my blog post on Ferseyn:

https://californiahorsehistory.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-little-gray-arabian-stallion-at-home.html

Breyer Model Horses:

https://www.breyerhorses.com/

*Raseyn's history is documented in Lonnie Hitchens' video on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9zHD5lKlK4

Here's a short clip of Ferseyn as an older horse:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0rc5RmhTXM

Artist Lawrence Tenney Stevens was profiled by Phoenix magazine in 2022:

https://www.phoenixmag.com/2022/01/06/cowboy-down-the-tangled-arizona-legacy-of-lawrence-tenney-stevens/

Horse Figurines in the Making: An old film of Fannie Branson creating her "miniature horses"

Artist Fannie Branson with one of her equine creations in 1946

In 2023, I wrote a blog post on equine artist/crafter Fannie Branson (1881-1965) of Agate Beach, Oregon. 

Here's a short documentary film showing her at work! (Thanks to Linda Shaw for sharing the link with me.)

https://vimeopro.com/oddballfilms/unusualoccupations/video/89056176

And here's a link to my original blog post on the artist:

https://modelhorsehistory.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-handcrafted-horses-of-oregons.html