Tchotchke Challenge - Letter H.

H is for Horse

Back in the summer of 2006 I was visiting my Auntie Dar, who is an outstanding decorative painter (see her work here!) She has a studio at The Merry Go Round Museum in Sandusky Ohio. She gave me a wonderful tour of the museum that concluded in their gift shop, where some raffle tickets were for sale. I paid $5 for 6 raffle tickets, assuming I was making a contribution to the museum, and promptly forgot about the drawing, which wasn’t being held until New Year’s Day.


Six months later, I got a phone call on New Year’s Day. I had won a carousel horse! I envisioned something like this:


But no, the caller went on to tell me that I needed to make arrangements to pick it up or have it shipped from Sandusky because it was a FULL SIZE, hand carved, hand painted, work of art.

Now I know that this is way too big to qualify as tchotcke (and I'm all for stretching the definition!), but I wanted to show you. My cousin Carrie and her friend Linda carted it here in the back of their van. We keep her on the landing of the entryway to our house. So there is just no avoiding her. She was named Sanduskia,by my cousin Brandon because of her Native American origins.

I’ve been told that the sale of this item to an appreciative collector could finance a trip to Greece, Prague, Egypt or just about anywhere else in the world that I might want to go, but for now we’re happy to enjoy her in our living room, where she is the most frequently dusted (mostly by children’s bottoms) article in the house.


If you’re into carousel horses, the Merry Go Round Museum is not to be missed!

And don’t miss the tchotchke posted at Pam J and God Bless Ya’ll Real Good. They always have cool stuff! What are you gonna post for letter I?