Antique Folk Horses

A charming pair of antique folk-art horses, each individually made and mounted on a simple wooden wheeled platform.

The horses have a wonderfully naïve, almost sculptural quality, with expressive heads, painted decoration and remnants of their original harness and tack. Their surfaces have accumulated layers of age, wear and faded colour, giving them the slightly rough, timeworn character typical of handmade folk-art toys.

The wooden platforms are fitted with small wheels and the horses are linked with simple metal chains. Rather than the polished finish of commercially produced toys, these have the irregularity and individuality of objects made by hand.

They appear to be related to the tradition of antique horse pull toys, a form found across Britain and continental Europe during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Comparable English examples are documented from around the 1880s, although the exact origin and date of these two would need closer examination to establish with confidence.

They have a lovely sense of movement and personality, and the worn paint, old tack and simple construction make them particularly evocative examples of vernacular folk art.

Please note these are very old and delicate pieces and would be decorative pieces only. Sold as seen and sold as a pair.