A Commissioned Coyote + A Rocking Horse called Prince: an update

Hello Everyone - Cy Bear reporting in once again and very happy to be doing so once more!

While Isobel has been away attending to family matters (referred to in our post dated November 6, 2012   - What I did before the Cuddlies), I was left on guard here at home in Heytesbury.  To begin with, there was me, the Cuddlies all in their places in various cupboards around the flat and Edward Bear, awaiting treatment in the Soft Toy Clinic (Etsy Listing 79124185).  He has now been joined by four more Bears, about which you will be hearing in the weeks to come.

I was very interested to learn about Prince, the Morrell Family Rocking Horse, about whom I have got some more interesting things to tell, but it has been suggested that I  first tell you about a special Coyote that Isobel was asked to make for Clare.  I’m not telling you exactly which friend this is - because she is a Follower at www.ColdhamCuddliescalling.blogspot.com and we don’t want to ruin the surprise, because the Friend is not aware that he is coming to be their Forever Friend.  However, because making Coyotes involves a somewhat different process, Isobel asked me to tell you about it - as well as showing me with him before he left for his new Forever Home.  Somehow, I've missed out on recent Farewells, and I've had to remind Isobel she has been derelict in her duty to allow me to do so!

When we make a normal dressed Gentleman Toy, Isobel begins with a calico body and then makes the clothes and fits them on.  With a Coyote, it’s a different procedure and this is how she does it.  She cuts out all the pieces (body, clothing etc as usual).   Here they are, in pieces, as well as ready sewn to be added at the appropriate time.

 

But then she sews the arms, body, and legs all at the same time, so it looks like this:

Then come the boots, and this time, Isobel did them slightly differently - cutting the leg piece of the boot somewhat longer than normal, so that she could turn them over and create the boot turnover from the leather itself - as opposed to using some felt as the turnover. 

Mr. Coyote's jacket is made from a Harris Tweed remnant from which Isobel once made a straight skirt for herself.  His shirt comes from left-overs of a tablecloth that she hemstitched earlier in the summer and the trousers are from the stache of materials she recently acquired during a visit to our stuffing supplier, Fine Quality Feather Company in Frome, Somerset.  (See "Christmas Came Early" - 20/09/2012).  The pink button that finishes off the outfit comes from a collection of spare buttons held by Philippa.  ColdhamCuddlies  is a total family enterprise, you know!


 The boots are part of a big donation from two older ladies (one of whom is Fred Bear's Forever Friend, PatC - see our post "The Rejuvenation of Fred Bear - 27/09/2012)  who are now giving up their sewing due to failing eyesight and increasing maturity.  Isobel is over the moon with her new acquisitions - which were too many and too heavy for her to carry back when she returned from her recent travels:  but which are currently residing with Philippa, who is bringing them down to Heytesbury when she comes to help Isobel set up our ColdhamCuddlies stall at a forthcoming  Wylye Valley Primary School  Bazaar on December 1.   Doubtless you'll be hearing about that huge donation when it arrives too!

I think Mr.Coyote looks rather smart and I suspect that this will be the way that boots are attached to Gentleman Toys’ legs in future.  Certainly, Isobel found it a whole lot easier.  It just means that instead of trying to fit the fully stuffed boot on to a fully stuffed leg, she can fit the boot onto the leg and stuff the remaining space in the boot, and then attach the sole of the boot.  Makes the final Toy stand up better as well.

Anyway, here is Mr. Tweed-Coated Coyote in his final form - with me beside him to be able to send him away to Clare’s home late last week.  He is now being prepared for his international journey, together with one of Isobel’s Baby Rabbits - the Yellow Baby Rabbit, which means that these particular Baby Rabbits are no longer available.  This example was made with the final piece of yellow soft fur fabric Isobel had used for “Treasures” - the family name for Yellow Baby Bunnies - the first model having been made for Philippa when she was a baby quite a few years ago!

And talking of Philippa, brings me to some further news about Prince, the Morrell Family Rocking Horse - about whom Isobel posted earlier this week, under a similar heading (12/11/2012).  Needless to say, once the post was published some further items came to mind - both from Isobel and Clare.  The latter was quick to tell her Mother that she had actually ridden Prince a lot when she was still able to - and had ridden for miles and miles, side-saddle wearing a dress donated by a family friend for just such a purpose, and had visited all her imaginary friends living on the nearby, imaginary Prairie close to her imaginary home.  Isobel felt this item should be shared with readers - as I do too!

A further anecdote to do with Prince's arrival in the family for Peter to play with sprang to mind after the post had been published.  Isobel believes that Prince could have been presented to Peter's Father Jim, just after Jim had been commissioned as an Officer on the Manchester Regiment Parade Ground in 1941.  Such occasions are rare in Army life, and Jim was popular among his men.  This would seem to have been a fitting way for everyone to commemorate such an occasion.

During the post, reference was made to a missing printer/scanner:  I’m pleased to inform you all that it is now back in place and Isobel decided to try and scan the only photograph of Philippa riding Prince she could find in the camphor wood chest in our living room.

 That’s Clare in the pram, by the way - so this picture would have been taken circa 1973-4:  Isobel was not as deft with the camera then, nor was it a digital one!  But you can see what Prince looked like minus forelock and mane - he was tail-less too, but the pram is in the way in the picture!

(I've promised myself for years that I will one day set to and put all these prints (now in manilla envelopes in year order) into picture albumns.  That was before the Cuddlies in current form and blogging came on the scene!  Maybe, one day.......?)

So what’ has Isobel doing on the Cuddly front, I hear you ask?  Well, she’s been doing battle with a proposed new member of the Cuddly Family -  Frog.  It’s the first time she’s made one, and his legs have proved a bit of a problem.  However, it would seem that the end is in sight, and once this one has been completed, she intends to do another version, so that the customer who commissioned this particular Toy  (during the recent Greatest Coffee Morning in the World Bazaar in aid of MacMillan Cancer) has a choice.  The eventual Frog is destined as a Christmas present for the gentleman’s sister-in-law who collects Frogs (and is reported to have nearly 40 different ones of all shapes, sizes and formats).  Then there is a Black Kitten to make for another Christmas commission - and then come the 5 Bear Patients in the ColdhamCuddlies Soft Toy Clinic (Etsy Listing # 79124185).

Isobel is going to be busy - so I’ll have to leave it for now, and go and keep an eye on the Bear Quintet.  We currently share the Lloyd Loom Chair in Isobel’s bedroom - out of the way of other daily activities.  (Or rather, they share the Chair, and I'm forced to make do on the bedside table!

Good night - and Good Bye for now!  Cy Bear.

Friend for Lifetimes - a Rocking Horse called Prince

Goodness me, how time does fly.  It's now a week since I posted last, and it's time that situation was rectified.  So, before I get too tied up with Christmas present  buying, creating the Christmas round-robin (a difficult one this time) and sorting the Cards out in time to meet the international posting deadlines, thought I'd recount  the story of Prince, a Rocking Horse who has been a friend both to Peter (since he was a Toddler during the Second World War) and then Philippa who inherited him when she too was a small girl in the 1970's.

Prince the Rocking Horse - a frontal view

Exactly how he arrived to become Peter's friend - they "rode" for many hundreds of miles together until Peter became too big to ride him - is not clear.  Family legend says that he was made for Peter by the young soldiers of his Father's regiment (the Manchester Regiment) when both were serving in the Liverpool area during and shortly after the Liverpool Blitz.  Prince moved everywhere the family did - which was frequently at that time - but spent some of Peter's childhood in Manchester where the family eventually purchased a home  (as opposed to living in military billets).  I don't think he moved with them when Peter's Father's regimental posting to Singapore took the family there and what happened to Prince once they all returned and they went off to their respective boarding schools is also somewhat hazy, but I would surmise that he stayed with Mum (who provided the family hub after their Dad died in 1951).

While they all lived in Manchester, the story goes that Peter was loth to allow anyone else to ride him - with good reason apparently.  One day, one of his many cousins came to play and was allowed to ride him - without supervision.  Alas, said cousin decided it might be fun to see if his mane and tail came off - and before the grown-ups could stop him, sure enough he got them off.  The result was that from that time onwards until many years later, he was a Rocking Horse minus mane, tail and forelock.  However Mum was able to rescue the brown mane and tail - and it was carefully stored away until such time as the right person could be found to re-attach them.  It's a specialist business achieving such results and it was a long time before we were able to get the job done.  

My first memory of Prince was shortly after Peter and I got married in 1969 when he was living in an allotted space in Mum's bedroom - which is where I think Philippa first met him (although she was too small at that time to actually sit on him).  However, by 1973 he had taken up residence with us, and travelled wherever we happened to be.  Philippa too  (the name actually means "Lover of Horses"  in Greek we discovered after we had christened her) spent many a happy hour riding Prince everywhere in her little imaginary world.  (She did have riding lessons a few years ago under guidance from a Household Cavalry instructor - courtesy of the FANY, but after a nasty fall, has rather lost her nerve.  She is determined to get back in the saddle one day - but not quite yet!  However, her love of horses is unquestioned).

The one photograph I have of her in such mode  is not very clear and would have to be scanned into this post - and, alas, as I type this, the printer/scanner is being doctored after we suffered a bad paper jam late last week.    (I have been absolutely lost without it - never thought I could get so attached to a blinking machine!)  Also, my scanning efforts to date have not been as successful in our posts as are the digital illustrations.

Showing Prince's brackets and Stand

When we emigrated to Canada in 1975, Prince came along too - and continued to occupy Philippa until she too got too big to ride him.  I don't recall Clare riding him very much - somehow she and horses (Rocking or otherwise) have never been close and I suspect she found him a little unsteady for comfort.  After all this time, and travelling inter-contintentally his brackets had indeed got a little rocky.  Alberta's climatic conditions (dry, cold winters and similarly dry summers - interspersed with torrential downpours occasionally) together with the central heating did not do Prince's wooden frame a lot of good - because his paintwork began to flake and he also showed signs of cracking.  However, he carried on - often acting as a clothes horse when cupboards etc. were full!

Prince, side-ways on showing off his saddle and strirrups

For the next ten years, after we returned to the UK , Prince spent his time somewhere in our house - usually covered with an old unused gentleman's coat - to keep the dust off.  However, in 1998 we sold our house - as Peter became increasingly less well and moved into a small apartment where Prince could no longer be accommodated.  Philippa who had been appointed Prince's guardian by this time, was living in a small room in London, and then moved to work in Belgium, so Prince was put into storage together with our excess baggage. In 2000, we moved again - this time to a bungalow - and while he could not stay in any living space, there was room for him in the attic so Prince took up residence in a large space - which could get quite cold during the somewhat wetter winters in Lancashire, which again did his wooden frame no favours.  Still, he soldiered on until Philippa moved into a large enough flat where he could be comfortably housed.

He has been with her ever since and a couple of years ago, she managed to find a specialist Rocking Horse Restorer to put the old fella to rights. You will notice that his forelock, mane and tail are now properly attached, but this time, they are Grey. (Horses are never white as you know - unless they are the White Horses we have here in Wiltshire, which have been cut out on hillsides with Limestone soils):  they are different shades of Grey.   The Restorers confirmed that he is a "Liverpool" model, but his Brown mane was incorrect - which does, in my view, confirm the family legend referred to in the introduction:  that Prince was indeed a handmade present to Peter based on the Liverpool Rocking Horse Model - but because it was war time, the crafters used whatever material came to hand - which just happened to be Brown!

Prince in his corner in Philippa's living room

In addition, I never remember him being so White - in my recollection, he was more of a creamy yellow colour, which again confirms his original artisan origins, where they made do with what they could find at the time..

Prince now stands proudly in Philippa's living room in High Wycombe - and awaits any Little People who come to visit for lunch or to stay and who happen to be the right size and weight  to sit comfortably and safely on him.  In the interim, as an elderly gentleman (in human terms he's got to be in his 70's), he stands contentedly in his corner and watches as the days go by.