Rocking horse
The carved, dapple-grey horse on bow rockers – the most costly toy in the 19th-century nursery.
Rocking horses existed in the 17th century, but in the 19th the dapple-grey horse on bow rockers became a symbol of the well-to-do nursery. Queen Victoria is said to have had one as a child.
Bow rockers let the horse tip over and rock across the floor. From around 1880 came stands on which the horse hung from swing irons above a fixed base, which was safer and took less room.
Materials: Carved and gessoed wood, paint, horsehair, leather
Manufacture: Carved from several glued blocks of wood, gessoed and painted; mane and tail of real horsehair.
Dapple-grey painting, grey with dark spots.
Glass eyes, a horsehair mane and leather tack.
Bow rockers on older horses; swing stands from around 1880, which were safer.