Curios – An Artist’s Wooden Horse

In the decades that Art and Craft Valley has been in Coulsdon, the shop has accrued some rare and rather unusual items.

Rather than covering an individual craft, for these Curios posts, we thought we’d feature some of the rarer and more unique items you can find on the shelves.

Artists will be familiar with the fully-articulated human mannequins (sometimes called mannikins, manikins, manekins, etc.) and maquettes you can get in the shops in various sizes. While these are used as references for poses and proportions when drawing, they are also sometimes used as tailors’ dummies for making doll’s clothes and similar small scale work. These mannequins are fairly common, made of wood or the cheaper versions from plastic, and you can even find them as desk toys. Large versions of single hands are available as it is an area many artists find the reference useful for.

Much rarer are the fully articulated mannequins for animals, particularly large animals like horses. This may be because fewer artists draw them, or because the complexities of articulating animals, particularly long flexible necks, make the models significantly more complex and therefore more expensive. Even when horses were more commonly available as references, these mannequins were useful to artists, since there was no guarantee the horse would stay still!

Examples of this type of mannequin are available from the 1800’s, and some came with a rider that could be posed (see an example here). They weren;t all designed to be realistic, either; one example from the 1930s is stylised for folk art (click here to view).

Some of these can be real works of art in their own right, so it should not be a surprise they are often bought less by artists and more by curio collectors or for decoration. They are a little too fragile, and expensive, to be used as toys – they certainly weren’t meant for that use! – and the intricate small joints could be damaged by rough use. Many such mannequins will have exposed screws at the joints, to save on costs, which make them less safe and less suitable for display.

The horse mannequin in Art and Craft Valley isn’t that old, but it is a very good example: made from Alniphyllum Fortunei wood, it is brand new and boxed. It has never been removed from its wrapping and remains in absolutely stunning condition, complete with full fibre tail.