Wooden clockwork horse and rider made in Japan in the 1950s

The horse consists of the head; body; tail; legs attached to wheels and the rider with the parts linked together with with metal rods. The right side of the lower body has been cut away to allow the metal clockwork to be attached; it has an integral key. The horse is varnished wood painted with blue; green; red and black trim. The ears are large and made of white and blue cloth giving the impression that the horse is meant to be a mule. The rider is a jockey painted red; black; pink; his left leg only is shown and it is actually painted on the body of the horse. The tail is painted black. The whole is mounted on four wheels via a bar between the legs. When wound the legs open and close and the horse appears to leap along. When is stops it rests on its bottom. This final movement may or may not be originally planned; however; it adds to the illusion of the mule as this is a mule habit when it does not want to work. Under the rear legs bar are to metal pins which assist in the movement of the whole.

It is very unusual to combine wood with metal to form a clockwork
toy; however; this one works efficiently.

The horse and rider is part of the Barry Joseph collection of mechanical horses which was purchased by the museum in 1994. This is an unusual example of a 1950s Japanese clockwork toy in that wood and metal have been used in its construction as opposed to metal alone or metal with plastic.

B.141-1994