Cast iron horse head hitching post topper | ||
| Victorian Era19 of 2420 |  |  |
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Posted 2 years ago
bbmbr2000
(29 items)
Cast iron horse head hitching post topper
**I have the ring that goes in the mouth it was bent so it's being repaired at the moment**
10 " tall
Weighs about 20 lbs
I was looking for a way to date this... As I was told they still make them today. Without a a foundry mark how do I know it's antique.?
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Not a horse head hitching post expert, but can help some..
Well..it's a nice decorative piece if anything else. Even if is antique how much value is there? Unless you have some provenance..a picture, written statements, etc. it's pretty tough to prove. A quick search shows tons of these.
Some of the things to look for..construction, patina and wear. Obviously a real one would be outside in the weather. So you'd expect to see signs of that, as well as wear from actually being used. Your piece has a convincing base comparing to others. Also the weight is good. You can compare yours to known real ones. Lastly some research helps..where did it come from? What area? Are there other examples like yours in that area? Any historical pictures? A local historical society may help answer some questions.
Some old ones..
https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-1983304
Yours has a distinctive style base..
https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-1983160
bbmbr2000, Cool. :-)
Yes, it can be difficult to ascertain the age, because you can buy modern ones on Amazon. :-(
Dunno whether these ones were antique or modern (I suspect modern, because installing antiques outdoors almost invites theft), but the now-defunct Fry's Electronics store in Palo Alto, CA had some out in front:
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/frys-electronics-store-front-with-a-wild-west-theme-gm1179921475-330347175
Some background:
https://www.farmcollector.com/equipment/hitching-posts-now-rare/
It was mounted to a piece of pipe and a friend's grandfather's ranch for at least 50 years of it's life. She told me if she ever had to move out of the house she would give it to me because 10 years back I had expressed how much I liked it. So she ended up losing the house and kept true to her word and called me out of the blue to come pick it up. This was in california and I believe her grandfather was a fish and game warden for years. He aquired a lot of oddities over the years.
bbmbr2000, OK, that sure sounds like it's probably antique. :-)
How nice of the house owner to remember and honor her offer. <3
Some more, assorted horse head hitching post info:
http://www.bullworks.net/daily/20070708.htm
https://patents.google.com/patent/US83899/en
https://patents.google.com/patent/US341488/en
https://patents.google.com/patent/USD4746/en
https://www.antiquesandthearts.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07//2008-02-05__11-20-16Image5.GIF
https://www.antiquesandthearts.com/orsing-around-nineteenth-century-cast-iron-hitching-posts/
*snip*
Black Cast Iron Melcher's Patent Horse Head Hitching Post, Detroit, Michigan, late 19th century, the base marked "MELCHERS/DETROIT/MICH" and "PATD MAY 21 1872," ht. 14
*snip*
https://www.skinnerinc.com/auctions/3705T/lots/1969
Nice one Dave!!! There were many manufacturers of these over the years, but yours certainly appears to be from the Victorian era. In regards to which foundry cast this wonderful piece, it's hard to say. Truly a treasure my friend!!
Sorry, I meant bbmbr2000. Very nice piece you have there.
Thank you!
x insert roadlining southern states -Louisianac AC auctions
you get 2 versus 1 , so you get 20 lbs for 10 inch, so it is heavy casting , i think a sort of ( late)19 century street liner, does,not look like a fence top actually i think it is a rather well mould
Are the newer ones not heavy casting?
it depends on the purpose and probably on the timeframe and geographics
the weight was increasing because the cars came in the cities and the horses and the trolley cars interfere with the traffic , so less demand , so less bang for a back
geography got something to do do with the southerners are more ornamental then in the north, got more use of pimping a park , they just planted hahaha, they used more pipe horses then doric style
and the southerness used them more as porch entrance and the southerners got a more affilition with a type of greeck pillar style
IMO this is a good mould , you stated it was pipe model , bit surprised not being an finial fluted coumpouneded horse-lionhead DORIC pillar , but maybe there are compatible ( hard to believe)
personnely i don,t believe it is simple ware ( in slang called mardi grass horses)IMO this is a known mold late 19 century, a known patina , and i think it real and the equation makes sense , and i think it is quite well
addendum DAve is right about the provenance and the paperware, but in this case it doesn,t matter because iron casting haven,t much intrinsic valua and the horse heads are seldsom signed, and collectors on this site don,t care at all, and almost never known the legislation , no sweat they are collectors not dealers
well done congrats , nice
correction the weight was decreasing
northern people were of the cheaper pipe line horses for parks etc
Awesome thanks for taking the time to respond. I appreciate it.
As I mentioned it was posted on a piece of pipe but I don't think the pipe was original to the topper. It wasn't very thick walled pipe at all and appeared newer.
Also doesn't seem to be a lot of buyers for this kind of thing any more at least not around here.
That's what I said in my first post. Real or not, the value isn't much. Still a cool decorative piece and great story..enjoy it. I'd fabricate a cool mount to display it.