White Horses

The Schoenhut White Horses The ring size of a real circus is made to be just right for a galloping horse. Horses are as much a part of a circus as elephants. The white horse was introduced in 1905.
Photo by Jim Sneed from the collection of Jim Kramer Glass eyes The ears are leather, the mane a cloth strip, and the tail is a bundle of string. The platform is red with a yellow fringe or sometimes a gold braid fringe. There is a halter on some of the GE white horses. Keller Style I - Very Scarce Photo by Jim Sneed from the collection of Jim Sneed Photo courtesy of Bertoia Auctions Photo by Jim Sneed from the collection of Susan Turner	Photo by Judith Lile Painted eyes The main change in this design was to the horse's head. The mane was painted. A leather halter is always present. Keller Style II - Scarce Photo by Judith Lile
	Photo by Jim Sneed Decal Eyes Later, the eyes were applied using decals. This example, ca 1933, came with its colorful box. Rare
(Need reduced open mouth)(	Photo by Jim Sneed from the collection of Jim Kramer Reduced size, closed mouth, decal eyes Photo by Jim Sneed from the collection of Jim Kramer
Photo by Jim Sneed from the collection of Jim Sneed In the late 1920s, Schoenhut produced a few of their most popular animals and actors with colorful boxes. They must not have produced them for long as these are scarce today. We have found boxes for the DE Bear, DE White Horse (shown above), PE lion , Ringmaster and the Hobo. Certainly others were boxed.	Humpty Dumpty Buttons Sometimes, though rarely, Schoenhut put a very small metal button on the belly of certain animals. The button reads: "Humpty Dumpty".
Pony Blitz While not really part of the circus, the Pony Blitz was nevertheless an interesting ride-on toy. The ad shown below illustrates this. The photo above shows the Pony Blitz next to a regular size glass eyes white horse. This hobby horse was mounted on a pull platform. This is a very rare Schoenhut horse - only a few are known - perhaps only this one and one other.	A ca 1905 ad for the Pony Blitz. Click on thumbnail to enlarge.