The Collectors' Get Together

Nancy Falzone's get together was pretty incredible. Believe it or not, for the first time in my life, I actually went into horse overload. She has THOUSANDS of china models, and there is glass case after glass case chock full of them in every room of her home! (Nancy is one of the top three china collectors in the world. I soon saw why.)

And almost all of the big china collectors in the US were there. Actually, only one of the "big three" in the world was not there (Ed Alcorn from Florida.) More than once I looked around and wondered why I was invited - I have a nice collection, but certainly not one on par with most of these folks' collections.

 Front (l-r): Liz Isham Cory, Yvonne Rott, Donna Conners, Dawn Sinkovich, Steff Bodamer, Linda Shawhan. Middle (l-r): me, Ardith ??, Michelle Oviatt. Back (l-r): Jamie Rott, Paul Francis, Kristina Lucas Francis, Liz LaRose, Nancy Falzone, JoEllen Arnold.

Nancy's basement had a shelf that went around the perimeter of the room. That shelf was covered in several thousand mini Hagen Renakers sorted by category (cats, birds, wildlife, etc.)

A view of the living room - the pieces on tables are those we were asked to bring for a fun show and tell. (And that was fascinating!)

 One of Nancy's many china display cases.

Kristina Lucas Francis and Dawn Sinkovich were my seat mates on the couch during the show and tell.

Liz Isham Cory, former editor of Breyer's Just About Horses, shares some white bisques she was given by Breyer. They're molds from Hagen Renaker that Breyer was considering using for production. Wow!

Nancy shares some tidbits about a few of her favorite pieces. (How she selected just a few out of those thousands is beyond me!)

Author Nancy Kelly (standing, on right) was in attendance. She is going to include our get-together in the book she is currently working on about hobby history. (She took the earlier group photo.)

She also photographed all our show and tell pieces for her book. This is my West German Steha Circus Pony taking its turn in the photo booth.

What a day that was - certainly one I will not forget. It was great fun being a part of such a gathering. But best of all, despite the "illustrious" group of folks, everyone was down to earth and friendly, and I felt like I fit right in.