A recurring phenomenon, in the portfolio of Maureen Love, is her skill in switching between art styles. While some of her extremely realistic horses were already in production at Hagen-Renaker, she was already branching out in more abstract representations (Modern Horse, wall plaques). During the 1960's, HR helped promote Maureen's own studio line of stoneware models, by including her order form with their own, in mailings to their dealers.*
Maureen's unnamed "Arabian Horse" mold showcases her two approaches. The flow and repeated lines of this sculpture follow basic concepts of good design. Those who collect only realistic horses, especially for competition, are less attracted to this mold. The pose's phase of movement is a bit unorthodox, in horse portraiture; he appears to be slowing down from a canter. In size and composition, he almost looks like a blend of Maureen's Arabian designs for HR, Sheba and Ferseyn.
The most unconventional (to model horse collectors) feature of this mold, as produced during the "Maureen Love Originals" line of stoneware, is his complete lack of eyes. Historically, Western art produced figures with carved out pupils and bas-relief irises, referred to as "lunular pupils" by at least one source.* This mold, however, has the entire eye carved out, to emphasize deep, dark brown equine eyes.
In the sculpture world, this is a perfectly acceptable way of representing the darkest part of a subject's eyes. Maureen used this technique of representation on quite a few of her own editions, and even some of her Hagen-Renaker sculptures. This mini mini is an example.
MLO order form.
Photo courtesy of The Horse, Bird, and Wildlife Figures of Maureen Love
by Nancy Kelly, Schiffer Publishing Ltd.
Nancy wrote that this one was made in 1975, and it is the most frequent color on this mold.
Photo courtesy of The Horse, Bird, and Wildlife Figures of Maureen Love
by Nancy Kelly, Schiffer Publishing Ltd.
Photo courtesy of The Horse, Bird, and Wildlife Figures of Maureen Love
by Nancy Kelly, Schiffer Publishing Ltd.
This is the same horse that was sold in the estate auctions.
His other side. Note that he has the same foreleg damage, hoof color.
Photo courtesy of Ed Alcorn's Maureen Love Estate Auction page.
This undated variation has less white glaze, and more of the red clay showing through.
Photo courtesy Sally Clow.
Photo courtesy of The Horse, Bird, and Wildlife Figures of Maureen Love
by Nancy Kelly, Schiffer Publishing Ltd.
Maureen's thick white glaze had a tendency to pinhole; it gave the horse a "fleabit gray" look. For most pottery, pinholes are undesirable, considered a flaw. Pinholes make a piece not foodsafe for functional ware, as the holes harbor food debris and bacteria. However, Maureen saw the decoration potential in this rebellious glaze. It makes the shadowplay of the holes convey the fleabite markings!
All of those bumps are bubbles. If they had popped, they would make even more pinhole "fleabite" markings.
You are looking at boiling glass (silica), that is simply frozen.
Decades later, Laurilyn produced more of the Arabian Horse mold, through a spin-off of their shared endeavor, Made With Love. The very small runs of castings were called Molds From Maureen's Garage. Maureen retooled the Arabian mold to have a smooth body, and eyeballs, for the MFMG edition. Laurilyn did all of the glazing on these.
Arappaloosa custom glaze by Laurilyn Burson
Photos from the 2003 MFMG Auction calendar
Photos courtesy of Kathy Williams.
Photo courtesy of Kathy Williams.
Photo courtesy of The Horse, Bird, and Wildlife Figures of Maureen Love
by Nancy Kelly, Schiffer Publishing Ltd.
Photo courtesy of The Horse, Bird, and Wildlife Figures of Maureen Love
by Nancy Kelly, Schiffer Publishing Ltd.
A conversation about this mold came up on the breakables yahoogroup in November 2013, following the posting of this ad, in a horse show program, for sale:
Scan of ad by Liz Strauss.
Photo on ad, enlarged for detail.
Note: no stilt glaze mark on belly.
It may sound odd to the outside observer, but even paper ephemera, like this ad for a horse transporter, can be collectible. So few have been found of certain molds, like this one, that any evidence of other finished castings is helpful to our collective knowledge about the mold. Maureen's own record of this edition's total number, if it existed, has yet to be made public.
The single example of this mold on the Model Horse Gallery, known as "Shah Zaman" and owned by anonymous, has been identified by a unique glaze flaw. It appears to have been touched by a metal stilt during the glaze firing. This left a pair of vertical indentations in just the glaze, in two spots on the right side, behind the girth area.
Photo courtesy of The Model Horse Gallery
Photo submitted to MHG by Liz Bouras
It appears to also be the same model on page 35 of Nancy Kelly's Horse, Bird, and Wildlife Figures of Maureen Love.
Photo courtesy of The Horse, Bird, and Wildlife Figures of Maureen Love
by Nancy Kelly, Schiffer Publishing Ltd.
If one compares the individual pigment areas of the glaze, this also shows it is the same exact horse. This horse was owned by Margo Potheau, who got him from possibly Jennifer Raymond, from Liz Bouras, from an unknown collector. The bottom of the base is not dated, but Liz owned this very piece in the mid-to-late 1970's, so he must be an early '70's piece. She called him, "Amarna Shah Zaman", after the famous horse, Ansata Shah Zaman. This model was sold to Jennifer Raymond in 1979, but from there his history agains falls into the unknown, until Margo acquired him. Here are some links about the real horse. Liz shared this:
Just read your new muddy hoof prints- very saddened to hear Margo died, had lost touch with her years ago. Back when I was a teenager, I'd sometimes find H-Rs in fleamarkets and she always bought them from me.
This ceramic model, with the identifying belly mark, was part of a generous bequest of original Maureen Love artworks, which is featured here.
It was a delight to examine so many images of both abstract and realistic versions of this rare mold. It is so inspiring to see how each interpretation changes the sculpt. We often see tests, variants, or different colourways from HR's history on her realistic molds, but on examples like this, the difference is much more significant.
Special thanks to Nancy Kelly, Sally Clow, Kathy Williams, Liz Bouras/Gail Berg, and Ed Alcorn for the use of their photos.
*When I was just getting started with the ceramic "Voltage" edition, as Lucas Studio, Joan Berkwitz cited this gesture on HR's part, and insisted on promoting my production run to her own Pour Horse Pottery dealers.
**This book was the 1980 exhibition and restoration companion text, The Horses of San Marco, Venice. Here is a copy for sale, and it's the first copy I have seen since I got my own in the 1980's. I highly recommend it to equine sculpture students.
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