The Donkey or Ass of Bessan is another of the Languedoc’s “totem” animals. Much smaller than the Poulain, it is made from a frame covered in cloth and decorated with crepe paper flowers and painted motifs. Under its skirt it is carried by four men, led by another who dresses in white, with a tricolor sash, and cracks a whip.
The last two characters are playing rough music on bladder fiddles. Just like the Hobby Horse, The Yellow Book discusses artistic aestheticism. It even has some of the same contributors as carte mauricie centre du québec the Hobby Horse, as well as the same publisher. The Yellow Book in a way replaced the Hobby Horse, because publishers invested in favor of the Yellow Book. Hobby Horse Hobby Horse Hobby Horsing Horse .I’m not sleeping, I’m just resting my eyes.
- If the household failed to come up with a final verse the Mari was allowed to enter; if not, it was turned away.
- I love the little details on both of the horses and think the girls will appreciate the differences in the colors and the designs.
- The Hobby Horse served as a way of sharing the views of the Guild and promoted crafted art as opposed to mechanical industry.
- The famous May Day horses at Padstow and Minehead are large constructions, suspended at shoulder level, with only the performer’s head emerging; they wear tall, pointed hats and their faces are masked.
In parts of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and around Sheffield there existed, into the early 20th century (and until 1970 at Dore) a Christmas and New Year custom of going from house to house performing a short play or dramatised song called The Old Horse, T’Owd ‘Oss or Poor Old Horse. The horse was of the “mast” type, constructed in a similar way to the Wild Horse of the Soul-cakers and the hooden horses of Kent. The earliest record is from 1840, at Ashford-in-the-Water, Derbyshire. Not all hobby horses fit into these categories, even within the UK. The famous May Day horses at Padstow and Minehead are large constructions, suspended at shoulder level, with only the performer’s head emerging; they wear tall, pointed hats and their faces are masked. The Padstow horses have circular frames, with fairly small, snapping-jawed heads on long, straight necks; the Minehead horses are more boat-shaped, with pointed ends and, since about 1880, have had no heads, though they have long, trailing tails, about 2.2 m long.
Hobby Horse Prints
From the term “hobby horse” came the expression “to ride one’s hobby-horse”, meaning “to follow a favourite pastime”, and in turn, the modern sense of the term hobby. The art has been introduced into neighbouring Johore and Singapore by Javanese migrants where it is performed at weddings by special dancing troupes. Led by a Danyang, a typical troupe today comprises 9 horsemen, 2 medicine men, 5 gamelan musicians and 9–15 ‘guardians’.
Robert Peckham’s “the Hobby Horse”
The Marrett horse shares the same arch of the neck and elegant bow of the rockers that grace the Hobby Horse example. Both toys are also decorated with stenciling, one on the sides of the rockers, the other on the platform. The family for whom the portrait was commissioned was one of the earliest to settle in Winchedon, Massachusetts. An 1849 history of the town notes that Seth Tucker, from whom Webster was descended, was one of the original four settlers of Winchesdon village. Captured as he is about to leave for school, young Webster (1834–1872) pauses at the door, cap in hand. With his slightly unruly hair and perhaps a faint smile, he stands in the corner before what appears to be a fireplace mantel, and upon a colorful yet fairly common Venetian carpet.
Some of the jumps in these tournaments are nearly two meters high and require real skill to clear while carrying a stick-horse. In fact, when I went home for Christmas this last year, I asked to bring it home with me. We had a lot of fond memories, and I wanted to see what kind of shape he was in. Details of the fuller, more elaborate performances, however, include states of shamanistic trance-like possession, and the custom may have originally been a form of totemic worship. The other creatures that take part are the àliga , bou , cucafera , drac de Sant Roc , lleó , and víbria .
Originally created in the same way as a mast horse or hooden horse, the Derby Tup represented a male sheep. It took part in a dramatised version of the Derby Ram folksong, which was performed in northern Derbyshire and around Sheffield during the Christmas season by teams of boys. It is “killed” by a butcher and its “blood” is collected in a large bowl. In some versions it is brought back to life by a quack doctor, like a character in the Mummers play. In notes published after his death, Llewellynn Jewitt noted how, in 1867, a dozen or so groups of traditional performers (several groups of guisers, the Wensley mummers, ‘The Hobby Horse’ and the ‘Snap Dragon’) called at Winster Hall in just four days between Christmas and New Year.
The Town Horse is accompanied by “Gullivers”, dressed similarly to the horse but without the large frame; as at Padstow, smaller, children’s horses have sometimes been constructed . The Fasnacht procession in Sankt Lorenzen im Lesachtal, south-west Austria, features a large band of musicians, some in fancy dress, and is led by a large, rather frisky hobby horse. It has a hollow body, covered by a long white sheet that almost reaches the ground, with a long neck and head apparently made of cardboard or papier-mâché; it is carried by two people who are hidden beneath the sheet.
It is a medieval typeface that is not found on commercial machine presses. Wide space was used around text to stress the blank white space around the text. Everything about the book was made to look beautiful, this was not meant to be a disposable journal, but rather one to be kept and cared for. It was a book created as an object- the quality of it emphasized the importance of what it represented. All forms of art and design at the time were addressed in the magazine, including but not limited to classical painting, classical sculpture, literature, poetry, architecture, furniture, and decoration. This kind of high-end selective art was prominent in the Hobby Horse.
The custom, described as “only just extinct” by folklorist Violet Alford in 1952, has since been revived in various places. The Century Guild aimed to preserve the artistic trade and the authenticity of the craftsmen behind it. In 1884 the Century Guild created a journal called The Century Guild Hobby Horse to publicize their views.
