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It is unclear why the rocking horse was originally created. Perhaps it was a tool for instructing children to ride, or even for knights to practise their jousting. It has also been argued that rocking horses were merely a re-creation in miniature of the main mode if transport at that time, essentially a forerunner to the modern toy car.
Whatever their origins, rocking horses have been made in many different forms all over the world for hundreds of years and, justifiably hold a very special place in the hearts of children and adults alike.
Our nostalgic connection with the rocking horse stems from their production in large numbers during the 19th and 20th centuries. In a time when a higher percentage of the population had more expendable income than ever before, the rocking horse soon became a fashionable feature of the nursery.
The traditional bow rocker was phased out during this period and was generally replaced by the American ‘safety stand’, perhaps due to the more practical needs of the smaller homes in which horses were being housed.
The quintessentially English dapple-grey was also a product of the 19th century. Spotted toy horses have been seen for many centuries, possibly because of sporting prints which, due to the limitations of printing techniques, could only represent dappled horses this way. However, acclaimed makers such as J. Collinson & Sons, G & J Lines and FH Ayres developed a technique of hand stippling that realistically reproduced the dappling seen on real horses.
Famously, of all the horses in J Collinson & Sons. Liverpool shop during a visit in 1851, Queen Victoria chose to ride the dapple-grey. Its popularity has remained high in the UK ever since. Although many other finishes continue to be produced, the dapple-grey endures as the archetypal image of the rocking horse.
'Scope for the imagination is unlimited. The rider is at once transported into a realm of fantasy'.
'King George IV and Queen Victoria immediately embraced the dapple-grey; its subsequent popularity may have been due, at least in part, to this royal seal of approval.
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