Wednesday, January 5, 2022

Hagen-Renaker History: Duck Duck Gone


Understanding the histories of the companies that make model horses and other animal figurines can give us valuable insight into the times and places they were first produced.  

The other day, I came across a tiny piece of Hagen-Renaker history that I had never seen before. It was in an article in the Monrovia News-Post, dated September 29, 1947.

The weather was nice that week; highs in the low to mid 70s, overnight lows in the low 60s, with a few night and morning low clouds and fog (as are often seen in Los Angeles County).  The Hagen-Renaker company was just getting started, and -- for whatever reason -- Maxine Renaker had set 700 unfinished duck figurines in her front yard. 



The article read:

Clay Ducks Stolen

    Mrs. John Renaker of 1018 S. Myrtle Ave. reported to police yesterday the theft of 700 unfinished clay ducks from the front lawn of her home.  

That was the entire story.

This news begs at least two questions. One: Which Hagen-Renaker ducks? They could have been the Model No. A-8 and A-9 miniature ducks. We know from the company's hand-written Mold Book that a Baby Duck (about 1 1/4" tall) and a Mama Duck (about 2" tall) were among the first little animals produced by Hagen-Renaker. These were only issued in 1948-1949. 


Detail from the Hagen-Renaker Mold Book
showing the Duck Baby and Duck Mama.

Two A-8 Duck Babies and their
A-9 Duck Mama, issued 1948-1949.

The mass-produced ducks are more rounded, less streamlined than the piece collectors sometimes call "THE Duck" -- the one-of-a-kind first small ceramic animal Maxine herself had first designed.


Maxine Renaker's original ceramic duck figurine,
on display a few years ago at the W. K. Kellogg Arabian
Horse Library at Cal Poly Pomona
in the "Miniature Menageries" exhibit.

The second, and more perplexing, question: How did someone have time to steal 

Seven. 

Hundred. 

Tiny. 

Ducks.

from the Renakers' front yard, without being seen?  Perhaps the little figurines had been set on a flat surface like a piece of plywood and it had been stolen as well?  

Neighborhood kids used to raid the trash bins at the various Hagen-Renaker production locations around town, taking home a discarded figurine or two. I know this from interviewing several people who were children in Monrovia during the late 1940s. Hagen-Renaker was truly a family business, and back then Monrovia was the kind of small town where everyone seemed to know everyone else.

But who would steal seven hundred little duck figurines?  We'll probably never know who took them, how they managed to carry so many small figurines away at once, or what happened to them. The newspaper did not publish a follow-up article.


An article in the November 11, 1947 edition of the Monrovia News-Post says Hagen-Renaker was established in May 1946.


An advertisement in the same issue set forth the company's goals.



The company's earliest animal figurines were a comical Gingham Dog and Calico Cat issued from around 1946 to 1949.  Other early H-R pieces included dishes, trays, and shadow boxes.  Here are two of the early plates, from my collection.


By September 1947, the company was selling factory seconds from its location on one of Monrovia's main streets, Myrtle Avenue.


Reportedly, the early dishware was not really all that popular with consumers. But once the company showed its earliest Miniature animals at trade shows, the business took off. And Hagen-Renaker, a family-owned Southern California business, continued to produce animal figurines right up until the close of 2021. That's quite a legacy, and countless numbers of collectors around the world are grateful for having their lives made better by Hagen-Renaker's management and employees, and by the figurines themselves. 

(This story also reminds me to keep an eye on yard sale and estate sale ads in the Monrovia area advertising small ceramic animals. Just in case the 700 ducks ever turn up!)

Here's another picture of the examples in my collection of the A-8 Duck Baby  (Style One) and A-9 Duck Mama (Style One) when they were on display in the "Miniature Menageries" exhibit on Hagen-Renaker, Inc. at the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library a few years ago.


Many thanks to collector and H-R expert Claudia Segger for thinking through the Case of the Missing Ducks news story with me. 
_________________

Hagen-Renaker, Inc. has ceased production in California; today, Hagen-Renaker Tennessee provides members of the Hagen-Renaker Collectors Club with high-quality, licensed reissues of Hagen-Renaker figurines from the original molds. Here's a link to the Club's website:



Author Nancy Kelly's books about Hagen-Renaker, Inc. are great sources of information about the company's history. She also archived the Mold Book on her website:





No comments:

Post a Comment