The Collectors
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Sunday 23 December 2007
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Like many young girls Patricia Mullins spent countless hours drawing and painting horses on paper and naturally wanting to own a real horse, but because her family lived in suburbia this wasn’t possible.
One day Patricia decided to buy an old rocking horse with the intention of painting it. But upon realising the beauty of the horse in its original condition she decided to restore it instead, which eventually lead her to meeting up with Jack Bartlett. Jack’s family owned and ran the leading rocking horse and carousel making company in Australia.
When restoring old rocking horses, Patricia is careful to keep as much of the original character as possible. It’s important to keep the little things intact she says as these maintain some history about the horse and the life it once had.
A particularly interesting piece in Patricia’s collection is a horse-drawn buggy that was made by the Dare Company in New York, and patented in 1878. This somehow made its way to Denmark and was given to Christian X. It was eventually passed on to a member of the royal household, who then passed it down through his family until Patricia was lucky enough to come across it one day.
