Vintage Playground Spring Horse Ride

When I visited playgrounds as a child, I always raced to the spring animals before anything else. The slides, the swings, the monkey bars...I passed them all by in my mad dash to claim a spot on my favorite animal ride. I've no idea why they appealed to me so much, other than perhaps the imaginative possibilities they offered, as I can remember pretending I was riding them to some far-off adventure. I do recall desperately wishing I had one at home, and now, a few decades later, I do!

This vintage spring horse by Playworld Systems of Lewisburg, Pennsylvania is made of cast aluminum with a steel base, and measures 36 inches tall. In his original paint, he is a very cheerful palomino pony.



The playground pony in his new habitat, the living room library.

A small herd of spring animals has been slowly forming at my place. To see the first one I acquired  (a duck), click here. Another is currently in restoration, and I'll post him once he's finished.

Vintage Carousel Photo

I found this wonderful vintage photograph at an antique show last weekend. Stamped "July 30 1940" on the back, it shows several women in their "Sunday best" gleefully riding an American traveling carousel at a fair.

What a joyful moment this photographer captured, during what were difficult and fearful times for so many.

Michigan's Antique Yard Sale Trail Report: August 13, 14, & 15 2010

Last weekend, we followed the Antique Yard Sale Trail, an annual 200 mile secondhand shopping adventure along Michigan's Lake Huron, St. Clair River, and Lake St. Clair shoreline that stretches from Algonac in the south all the way around the tip of Michigan's "thumb" to Sebewaing in the north. Besides enjoying the beautiful scenery from the bluffs along the lakeshore, we saw lots and lots of amazing things for sale, including old gasoline pumps, vintage televisions, and a taxidermied alligator (the highlight of the sale, in my opinion.) And I found several treasures, of course (although I didn't buy the alligator.)

"Fumes," a taxidermied alligator smoking a pipe 

in a relaxing, and utterly unnatural position, was priced at $325.

Can't you just imagine all the decor possibilities?

 

A 1949 "Suitcase" Sentinel, the first portable television, 

was available for $199.

One table held a beautiful display of vintage hatboxes, shoes, and ladies' accessories, including this swanky faux leopard print head wrap and scarf. I was mightily tempted...

At the other end of the collecting spectrum, a dealer had a yard full of rusty treasures, including vintage sleds and this old Gulf gas pump:

If, for some reason, you needed a Greyhound bus sign, 

this dealer could hook you up:

And what did I buy? Something I've always wanted (who wouldn't?!): a vintage cast aluminum kiddie spring-rider animal from a playground. 

We mounted it on a piece of plywood cleverly embellished with fake grass for an authentic outdoor look. It now serves as an additional seating option in the living room.

Restored Antique Coin Op Horse Kiddie Ride

We finished restoring my antique coin op horsie ride this weekend (for the details, see a few posts down, or click on the "kiddie ride" or "mechanical horse" labels below). Here's video of him in action.

Restoration: Mechanical Coin Operated Horse Kiddie Ride

I have an amazing mother. She has a gift for repair and restoration, and she can do just about anything: restore a Model T, re-key a vintage gumball machine, reupholster a Victorian sofa, rewire an old lamp, or refinish an antique oak bookcase (all projects she's completed). That she's doing these things in her 60s is even more remarkable to me.

Earlier in the summer, I bought an old coin operated kiddie ride horse at an antique fair. It had been sloppily re-painted in very drab colors, including a heavy coat of black paint over the entire base, and mom was just itching to tackle it. I could see her looking appraisingly at it the first time she saw it, and after that, every time she stopped by, I heard, "You know, I could rewire that thing in a few minutes, and then we wouldn't have to worry about it catching the place on fire when you run it. And, while I'm at it, it would be nothing, nothing, I tell you, to just go ahead, strip it, and repaint it." This went on all summer. Finally last weekend I agreed I was ready to let him go, and before I knew it he was gone, whisked away to mom's workshop of wonders, where he was completely disassembled in mere moments.

Within a day, she had painstakingly stripped all the nasty black repaint off the base to reveal the original colors and even the lettering. The base was originally red with yellow trim and the words "PONY RIDE 5 c" stencilled on the side. It was so exciting to discover this had survived! We debated whether to completely restore the base by repainting and restencilling, but decided to leave it as is, showing all its use and wear. This horse was ridden by a LOT of kiddies back in the day (1940s), as the paint is worn almost completely away on the base top, where they would have been climbing on and off. To me, this wear is an important part of its history, and I enjoy seeing it. How someone could have just slapped all that nasty black paint over it is beyond me...


The next day it was reported that the mechanism had been thoroughly cleaned and regreased. And the rewiring job was finished, complete with a new electrical switch (mom: "like I told you, it took less than 20 minutes!").


Yesterday the primer was applied, and we picked out the paint colors. The first picture below shows the stripped horse, followed by the primer stage. The next picture shows his first coat of paint, and the final image is the finished project. He's a black circus pony now!

1940s Mechanical Coin Operated Horse Kiddie Ride

This past weekend I attended one of my favorite outdoor antique markets. As I pulled in the drive, I spotted this incredible kiddie ride at one of the first booths. It just looked like it was waiting for me...

Horse kiddie rides are, in my opinion, the ultimate toy collectible. Who doesn't have childhood memories of riding a mechanical horse outside their local grocery store or at a roadside amusement park, and wishing fervently that they could take it home? All you needed was a quarter (or earlier, just a penny or nickel) and the ride would begin, the horse "galloping" off, taking you far away from your everyday world.

I never thought I would be able to own one of these myself: most mechanical horses are quite large and incredibly heavy. But this one is smaller than commonly seen, about 40 inches tall by 40 inches wide, and thus just the right size for my little living room. The horse was made right around 1940 by the Allen Herschell Company of North Tonawanda, New York, a maker of carousel horses since 1915 (with an earlier incarnation of the company dating back to 1873). He still works after all these years, gently gliding up and down, taking us off to parts unknown.


(Click the arrow below to see him in motion.)