Artwork Details
- Title
- Rocking Horse with Yellow Halter
- Artist
- Unidentified
- Date
- ca. 1900
- Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 24 1⁄2 x 29 3⁄4 x 14 5⁄8 in. (62.2 x 75.6 x 37.2 cm.)
- Credit Line
- Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson
- Mediums Description
- carved and painted wood, leather, glass, metal, and straw
- Classifications
- Keywords
- Animal — horse
- Object Number
- 1986.65.89
Artwork Description
Rocking horses have been around for centuries, but they took the form we recognize in the early nineteenth century. The earliest ones were hand-carved with leather saddles and reigns, real hair manes and tails, and metal stirrups. After the Civil War, many companies mass-produced wooden horses with new “rocking” mechanisms, which stopped the toy from moving across the room. Demand fell for rocking horses by the mid-twentieth century, but they have recently enjoyed a revival in interest.