Origin Story: Hagen-Renaker "Nancy" and "Tony"

When I write about the model horse hobby, I want to help collectors have a better understanding of how the model horses we all enjoy are sometimes directly connected to real horses known to the designer of the model horse figurines. 

Such is the case with two of the earliest Hagen-Renaker horse figurines, the B-626 mare that the HR factory called "Nancy" and her newborn foal, the B-627 "Tony." They were designed by Maureen Love, and issued in Fall 1955 to Spring 1957, Spring 1958, 1964, and 1965. They came in matte grey with darker shading. 

Some collectors have identified "Nancy" and "Tony" as Thoroughbreds or horses of unknown breed, but the Hagen-Renaker factory's handwritten Mold Book identifies them as Morgans. 

I believe they are Morgans, because Monrovia/Duarte, California horse rancher Merle Little's older daughter, Marlene, told me that her own Hagen-Renaker "Nancy" model was based on her father's Morgan mare, Betty Joaquin. I can place Maureen at Merle's El Rancho Poco in Monrovia, California -- the home of Hagen-Renaker at the time, too -- in 1953, when Merle's children still lived at home. They remember seeing Maureen in the pasture with her art supplies.

Merle kept many photographs of Betty Joaquin. When Marlene passed away, she left her father's "horse stuff" to me.

Betty Joaquin and her person, Merle Little

This first-person testimony, and the notation in the Mold Book that "Nancy" and "Tony" were Morgans, is borne out by photographs of Betty Joaquin and her 1953 foal. Marlene said that she called him "Tuffy Morgan," but her father called him by another name (she didn't say what).

Merle Little owned two Hagen-Renaker "Nancy" models, and one "Tony." The two mares show some of the variations in Hagen-Renaker's decorating styles.

They also show how good Maureen was at capturing the body language of a mare with a very young foal at her side.

Betty Joaquin had several registered Morgan offspring, and there are photographs of at least two of them as foal from Merle Little's estate. (More on them in a separate blog post.) But I believe the foal known as Tuffy Morgan probably inspired the H-R "Tony."

Look at Tuffy Morgan's head...

..and compare it to that of the Hagen-Renaker "Tony."

There's other evidence. Back in 2013, many of Maureen Love's original sketches of horses were sold by her heirs on eBay. Ed Alcorn archived the eBay photos on his Hagen-Renaker Online Museum website. At least one of them appears to show Betty Joaquin and a foal.

This photograph, from Merle Little's estate, shows Betty Joaquin's long forelock, mane, and tail.

I believe that it's at least plausible that Betty Joaquin and her foal known as "Tuffy Morgan" inspired the Hagen-Renaker "Nancy" and "Tony" Morgans. 

The sad part of this story is that there's no record of Tuffy Morgan, or any 1953 foal out of Betty Joaquin ever being registered. It's possible that he didn't survive; it's possible he was half-bred and sold without being registered. 

At least we have Maureen Love's record of him, in the form of the Hagen-Renaker "Tony" newborn foal.

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.

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You can see the Hagen-Renaker Mold Book on Hagen-Renaker historian Nancy Kelly's website: 

https://ketain.com/hagen-renaker-mold-book/

You can see Betty Joaquin's pedigree here:

https://www.allbreedpedigree.com/index.php?query_type=horse&h=BETTY+JOAQUIN&g=5&cellpadding=0&small_font=1&l=

All Breed Pedigree, above, says she was a silver dapple, but her registration papers say she was dun. 

And this ad in Western Livestock Journal, from 1943, shows that her previous owner described her as "chocolate brown, with a white mane and tail."

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

Flocked Model Horses, Harnesses, and Vehicles by Charles B. Cottrell

Breyer Belgian with flocking and harness by Charles B. Cottrell.
Photo courtesy of the horse's proud owner, Jen Boss.

Breyer model horse collectors affectionately call them "flockies" -- the model horses and other animals covered with soft fuzzy flocking.  Kirsten Wellman's excellent blog Model Horse Collectibility summarizes the history of flocked Breyers. She notes:  

If a flocked model appeared as a regular run in a Breyer catalog, as a special run in the Sears, J. C. Penneys, or Montgomery Wards holiday catalogs, or as a BreyerFest special run, it is considered original finish. If it did not, it's aftermarket or custom. 

The distinguishing factor is the intent behind the model's creation -- the catalog issue models were specially ordered by Breyer and retailers in a collaboration with an Indiana company called Riegseckers. 

All other flockie models were produced independently -- with no orders or input from Breyer -- by a variety of family business and hobby customizers including Riegseckers, Eighmeys, the Diercks and Algyre family, and many others. 

One of the other independent makers was an Iowa man named Charles B. Cottrell. An example of his handiwork recently came to live with hobbyist Jen Boss, who kindly allowed me to use photos of her new pride and joy. 

Cottrell's initials are embossed into the harness:

The Cedar Rapids, Iowa Gazette newspaper ran a feature story on Charles B. Cottrell and his family, showcasing their harnessed animals and vehicles. The story noted that Cottrell, a "veteran All-Iowa Fair livestock superintendent," started his hobby in 1974. The article doesn't mention Breyer models by name, calling them "small plastic animals" that "are purchased and then flocked. But the tiny pieces of farm equipment are cut from wood, assembled, and painted, all by hand."

A close inspection of one of the photos accompanying the article shows that Cottrell didn't just flock Breyer horses....

...because that's a walking Hartland walking Quarter Horse mare in the harness with the Amish buggy!

In June 1977, the Gazette reported, Cottrell entered his flocked animals and wagons in the hobby division of the All-Iowa Fair, "which earned him exceptional exhibit honors."

Today, the flocked model horses of Charles B. Cottrell are among the sought-after stars on the shelves of collectors.

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Here's the link to Kirsten Wellman's full blog post about flockies:

https://modelhorsecollectibility.blogspot.com/search/label/breyer%20flockies

Meg McDonald wrote about flockies for the Breyer website:

https://www.breyerhorses.com/blogs/collecting/a-history-of-breyer-flockies

There's a private Facebook group for collectors of Breyer flockies and vehicles, the Breyer Flockie and Wagon Collector's Showcase: 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/204555127642499

Here's my earlier blog post on the flocked model horses of Diercks & Algyre:

https://modelhorsehistory.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-flocked-breyer-model-horses-of.html

Note: The "market value" of any model horse is always dependent on condition, rarity, and who's shopping for it, among other things. A general starting place to find comparative values is to look at eBay "sold" auctions for the same or similar piece, then consult other model horse hobbyists for additional context.