Yo Brad, I am going to spec savers tomorrow, defo something wrong with my eyesight. The Sculpting & painting are Equisite
they look like bobby horses to me off a merry go round. There are 16 in OTS auctions, six of which are mounted. If Norman offered them to me just for the postage, it would be to much, wouldn't put one in my cabinet. As Scott says beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and if they are beautiful, will defo have to have another look at the wife
lol.
Bernard.
I stand by my statement. For his time, the casting and the quality of his painting were far beyond anything anyone else was doing at the time (eg, Britains in the UK, Heyde in Germany),
Bob Hornung contributed the article on Courtenay for Richard O'Brien's "Collecting Toy Soldiers," and noted the following details:
Richard Courtenay, born in England in 1892, began making toy soldiers in 1918. However, the figures commonly associated with him weren't produced until 1928.
...Courtenay figures are known for their superb animation and exquisite painting. (heh-I must have remembered the specific choice of words from the last time I read O'Brien-Brad) From the start they were painted with the heraldry of actual knights of the 'Hundred Years War' period. Courtenay's painting continued to improved, so that by the late 1940s and the 1950s he was producing true works of art. Both heraldry and faces were executed with exceptional detail." (O'Brien, "Collecting Toy Soldiers", 2nd edition, p. 607)
Hornung wrote that after Courtenay's death in 1963, miniaturist Freddy Ping inherited the molds and continued producing the figures until he passed in 1977. In 1978, Peter Greenhill acquired the molds and he continued the line. Hornung noted that the Courtenay-Greenhill figures are of the same quality as the originals.
The article also explains that Courtenay's figures were copied. "In fact, a company in New York copied nearly all of his work in the 1950s. Quality is generally very poor on these" (O'Brien, op cit).
On prices, Hornung wrote that foot figures ranged from $100 to $300 in mint condition, and mounted figures from $200 to $500, in mint condition. "Copies generally have little value" (O'Brien, op cit).
The article included a couple dozen pictures of foot and mounted figures. There is a picture of a mounted figure mounted on the same horse casting as the one in the auction pic you provided, though the specific heraldry is not depicted.
Personally, I'd be concerned about the provenance of the figures, and their authenticity, and I think $2500 is steep. But on the other hand, I think we've all seen how the auction adrenalin starts to flow (we've probably all experienced it, firsthand
), so it's not too surprising.
