Horse Designs in Home Accents

I have signed up to receive emails from many different design and retail sources, not because I'm buying things all the time, but because I enjoy looking through catalogs and sales books, both the old-fashioned paper kind and the online kind.  Besides giving me an occasional case of money envy (I don't have any) and wishing I could buy whatever struck my fancy, whenever I wanted to, I never know when inspiration may strike, or what may trigger it.

Today I received notification of Ballard Designs' weekly specials, one of which caught my attention.

As you can see, it is one horse divided into two pieces to use as bookends.

I love horses, and (besides knight chess pieces), have several horse items in my humble abode, including a small cast bronze sculpture of a rearing horse on a wood base that I bought years ago at one of the gift shops at the Fireside Theatre in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, onyx bookends in the shape of a horse-knight's chess piece, a machine-tooled wood horse in the style of the Tang dynasty in black with red accents (I got a good deal on it at the Museum Store in The Shoppes at Grand Avenue in Milwaukee), and my most recent horsely acquisition, the celedon ceramic horse from TJ Maxx in the style of the Tang dynasty.

Hmmmm. A horse sawed in half.  Is it just me, or does the thought of having a horse's patootey as a bookend strike you as, er, rather strange?   It is regularly priced at $99.00.  What? That's outrageous!  They're made out of resin, for goodness sake, not cast bronze! 

Right now the bookends are on sale until January 14, 2013 at a mere $69.99.  Maybe some folks would think that is a bargain.  I think it is ridiculous!  But, if you want to pay $35 for a horse's patootey as one of a pair of bookends, you can find them at Ballard Designs online!

Also received in the mail on Saturday a Gump's paper catalog -- I love looking at them while I'm doing the 45-50 minute bus ride to the office weekdays, but you can also find these sales online at Gump's website.

Now here's a good looking horse!  It's pricey (for moi), but 50% off, at Gump's:

I find it prettier than the cut-in-half horse at Ballard Designs. It could potentially be used as an anchor bookend if the books are resting against a shelf on the other side, or you could buy two and place them at either end of a run of books. I find it's lines (despite the awkward- looking hind legs) beautiful enough to be used as a worthy work of art on its own.

It is not cast bronze, or wood.  It's resin with a bronze finish.  Sizeable, at 21"W (I think this means length from tail to nose) x 5"D x 17 1/2"H.  It's on clearance sale right now for $69.99, regularly $139.  it is not inexpensive, even at 50% off, but it is almost two times larger than "Black Beauty" featured below, from Home Decorators. 

Home Decorators online is also running a sale (they do so regularly).  Home accents are right now 10% off plus free shipping.  As a chess lover and a horse lover, I found these items of note:

If one can get past the "Godfather" connotations of a horse's head (oh my!), these horse-head bookends are really well done and I love the patinaed finish with antiqued gold color. 

Although the material of which they are made is not specified, I assume they are cast resin.  They measure 9" tall by 3" wide, so they are substantial pieces.  Best of all is their price (plus free shipping) of $34!  I am buying these bookends for one of the gift bags I am putting together for the top female finishers in the Open and Reserve Sections of the Hales Corners Chess Challenge XVII that will be held in Milwaukee in April, woo woo!   They are very reminiscent of chess' "Knight" pieces done in the Staunton style.  The Staunton pieces were modeled after the horses from the section of frieze from the Parthenon that resides at the British Museum in London. 

Also at Home Decorators Online:

Black Beauty sculpture. It's made of resin but it looks like the original inspiration piece was modeled in clay. I'm not sure if I like it or don't like it. It's sort of ugly, but beautiful, too. It reminds me of a sort of cartoon rendering of a horse out of a Tim Burton cartoon nightmare, but the lines of grace, power and a bit of hubris (as in a young stallion) are, I think, expertly captured.

The price is an incredibly low $29 plus free shipping.  Black Beauty is made of resin with a "rustic black" finish and is 10.5"H x 9.5"W.

To be fair, I also did a quick search at Amazon.com for "horse bookends" and discovered LOTS of them, woo woo!  

Good shopping, and be careful out there!