It is believed that crude toy horses placed upon wheels were made for children as far
back as ancient Greece and Egypt around 400BC. In the 1300's, with the Age of
Chivalry, wheeled horses and stick horses were made for children to re-enact jousting
games and by the mid nineteenth century many pull-along horses were made in
England, Europe and America. Hobby Horses soon gave way to barrel horses in the
sixteenth century. Barrel horses consisted of a circular log supported by four legs and
adorned with a fake horse head at one end of the log, crude in nature when compared
to a rocking horse.
The early history of the rocking horse shows that they were made in England in the
17th century where King Charles 1 of England rode one of the earliest rocking horses,
which is in a museum today. In 1851 Queen Victoria visited the workshop of
J.Collinson and sons. When asked to select a rocking horse Queen Victoria chose a
dapple grey to ride. In the 19th century the rocking horse became more popular and
affordable to the middle class, they began appearing in more homes and nurseries.
P.J. Marqua of Cincinnati, Ohio in 1877 developed the safety stand and in 1880 a
patent was granted to Herbert Haddon of London for the same device. Rocking horses
on the bow rocker is still one of the favorites today. During the 19th Century, wooden
toy making evolved from a cottage industry into a factory production
Most of the factory produced wooden horses were gessoed and painted a
characteristic dapple-grey. Making horses into children's toys has been a pastime for
many hundreds of years worldwide. Horses were carved, roughly rasped and then
covered with gesso which was also known as whitening and looked like plaster. This
was far easier to rub down than the wood itself and gave a very smooth finish on
which to paint. It wasn't until the advent of modern technology that the natural wood
horses became possible and very popular. Without modern technology wood is far too
time-consuming to rub down by hand (which is why gesso was always applied and
then painted). However we now have the tools to rub down curved and intricate
shapes far more easily enabling us to achieve a very fine surface for the creation of
beautiful polished finishes.
The bow rocker is considered to be the safest rocking horse because of the width of
the rockers and resistance to being overturned.
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This growth was stopped short during World War I (due to the lack of men available
to build them) and the Great Depression (due to the poor economic conditions). The
rocking horse had almost completely became extinct around the 1960's. Stick horses
were very popular, helping children to use their imagination by playing Cowboys and
Indians in the early years of this country.
There are many commercial rocking horse companies in the world today. Thanks to
local artists for adding their own personal changes and designs to the historic
tradition of making rocking horses, our children are still able to enjoy the rocking
horse today. Early rocking horses can be found in museums and for many years they
have been past down from generation to generation.
| The History of the Rocking Horse |
| Harris Station Crafts “Finest Rocking Horses in the South” Made in the Foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains Contact us at 865-856-0388 |
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