Cabinet of Curiosities
Our columnist considers the compulsion to collect and shares his latest obsession
About 20 years ago, I was lucky enough to inherit our family rocking horse. He’s called Neddy and was manufactured by F. H. Ayres in the 1920s. The story goes (no doubt apocryphal) that my grandmother, passing by a house in Chelsea in the 1950s, spo!ed him from the street and was cheeky enough to knock on the door and ask if the rocking horse in the window might be for sale. Our horse has been repainted several times over the years. In the early 1970s, my grandmother commissioned the distinguished fairground artist, John Pocke! of Cookham, to give him a paint job, and, these days, Neddy gallops to the evocative dance of the traditional merry-go-round.
Children have played with toy horses since the days of the Ancient World. A simple wooden rocking horse, given to the future King Charles I in 1610, is thought to have been the "rst one ever made. Early rocking horses from this period have a naive charm and feature carved heads mounted onto #at, half-moon rockers.
But it was in the 19th century that the rocking horse came into its own. Of course, the real #esh-and-blood horse was very much part of the daily working life of the Victorians – paradoxically, the growth of the railways required more horse transport to take goods to and from the stations – and children’s toys tend to re#ect the everyday world of the grown-ups around them.
In 1851, Queen Victoria visited the Liverpool workshops of J. Collinson & Sons and admired a dapple-grey rocking horse. As ever, prosperous middle-class society followed suit, and dapple-grey rocking horses became the English staple. By 1877, there were 11 di $erent makers of rocking horses in London. Frederick Henry Ayres of Aldersgate is, perhaps, the most famous of the British makers. In 1887 they produced their "rst tricycle horse, and in 1916 they patented a new type of rocking horse, actioned by springs a!ached to a pillar stand. Another famous maker was G. & J. Lines – at that time the largest toy manufacturer in Britain. From 1910, Lines horses bore an embossed plaque with a thistle. Lines sold their horses at Hamleys, Gamages and Selfridges.
Before the introduction of the ‘safety stand’ in the 1880s, horses sat over sweeping bow rockers – more exciting for the adventurous child, perhaps, but unstable and
undeniably dangerous. The ‘safety’ or ‘swinger’ stand was the invention of Philip J. Marqua of Cincinnati, Ohio and patented in 1878. The horse’s body swings inside a frame, making it harder for curious li!le "ngers to get crushed.
Today, rocking horses are prized by collectors as valuable antiques, and a nostalgia for the Never Never Land of the Victorian nursery is very much part of the appeal. In order to retain its antique value, an early rocking horse in original condition is best le% alone, however tempting a repaint may be. That said, rocking horse restoration is a highly specialised "eld and expert restorers, such as Stevenson Brothers (stevensonbros.com), can take a damaged horse back to its original condition and historic colours.
Identifying horses is a tricky business. Not all makers used a mark, and over-painting can obscure a stamp. But F. H. Ayres horses had turned pillars on the stand and four holes to the brackets on top. Similarly, Lines horses had turned pillars, and three holes to the brackets, while Collinson horses had square pillars, small diamond brackets a &xed to the top, and swing irons painted scarlet.
As ever, it’s the rarer rocking horses that a!ract the highest bids. However, as with other antiques, prices at auction can vary considerably, and may depend on size, condition, quality, and – if, say, secured on a languid, lazy August a%ernoon – the luck of the draw. In 2017, a large, early horse on a bow rocker fetched a healthy £5,000 at Duke’s Avenue Auctions in Dorset, while a rare Lines horse with side-saddle and wicker seats to either end made £5,500 at Lyon & Turnbull in 2005. At the more a$ordable end of the market, a smaller, repainted or distressed 20th-century horse – still delightful – might be had for a few hundred pounds. In June of this year, a 1920s Ayres horse, restored and repainted by Stevenson Brothers, fetched £500 at Gorringe’s.