Recently a TricycleFetish.com visitor sent us this picture of an old sulky type tricycle that he was looking to restore. Unsure of exact age, maker, origins, etc. Still a neat example.
Q: I’m looking to get an opinion on my tricycle horse. It has a matching wagon/carrier of some sort. I bought it from a gentleman at an auction who had no idea about the history of the piece. I’m familiar with all the fakes/reproductions that are out there. I do believe this one is fairly old, maybe 40-60 years old, but I’m just not sure.
A: First of all, never trust an auctioneer, and never rely on an auctioneer to tell you anything about a piece that isn’t authentic. If this were an authentic horse velocipede from the period being copied by this one, the auctioneer would have gushed all over the piece and its rarity and antiquity. My guess is the auctioneer said something like “here we have a nice little horse tricycle,” and then started the bidding.
It may sound like I have something against auctioneers, but no, I do not. I regularly attend many auctions and have learned to take what they say with a grain of salt. Also, many many of the questions we get here at TricycleFetish.com concern purchases at auctions. When you combine the mess that is eBay, auction purchases become the majority of questions concerning value and authenticity.
Your specific trike has a few of key things that let you know its a repro. First, the wooden rims. Very, very, very, rare to find authentic antique tricycles (of any kind) with this time of rim. Very, very, very, common to find this type of rim on reproduction tricycles. Secondly, the wheelbase is so tiny (and I’m guessing the overall size is small as well). If you look at a tricycle and can’t figure out how it could be ridden by a child, that’s a clue that it might be a repro. The last easy thing to spot is the paint. It looks too uniform. When you look at enough of these things, its obvious what techniques were used to show age. In reality, a genuine antique tricycle would probably have chips, gouges and flaking paint, in addition to the type of wear that is shown on your paint job.
As for it being a vintage reproduction? I can’t tell for sure, and don’t really have too much knowledge concerning exact ages, but it looks to me that it was made in the past 10-15 years, at the latest. It looks just like a lot of other ones made recently. Also, most horse tricycles made circa mid-century era didn’t really try to be replicas of the antiques, rather they were made as their own type of toys and have characteristic design elements of the 40′s or 50′s or 60′s. This tricycle just looks like an Asian interpretation of what they think an old horse tricycle would look like today.
Be sure to check out our Fake Horse Tricycles page for more info and some photos of other repros. And then check the differences between those and the one on our antique horse trikes page.
Q: I WOULD LOVE IT IF YOU COULD LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK, LEONIE. (The email accompanying this request was in all capitals and quite long. Basically it said that the owner bought it an an auction for the equivalent of $175 in British pounds….)
A: Your tricycle does appear to Victorian or Edwardian. It most certainly was not as early as 1960 as you stated that it was advertised as. You stated that you thought it to be old because of the leather saddle being cracked….this is a poor way of judging age of these types of tricycles. Leather can easily be manipulated with chemicals to give it a cracked appearance. Also the polish that you state was over everything might be an indication that it was faked.
To me, the wear looks appropriate for an old tricycle. You didn’t really provide close-up pictures of the hubs, pedals, cranks etc., that would have been a better indicator that the body of the horse. You seem to have gotten a really good deal on it if it is 100 years old. I haven’t seen any other fakes with similar styles. Not 100% sure, but it appears to be antique. For more info on fake horses and real antiques, see our website.
One of the most common questions we receive at Tricyclefetish.com deals with the authenticity and age of horse tricycles. Is my tricycle antique? A simple “NO” in reply to every question would be right about 99.9% of the time without ever seeing a picture of the tricycle. Original horse tricycles are incredibly rare, especially Victorian era horse tricycles and velocipedes. The chance of you finding one is slim, even if you are a high volume antique dealer.
So to help demystify antique vs fake horse trikes, we’ve created two pages with pictures of fake tricycles and antique tricycles, complete with what to look for to help determine if your tricycle is in fact a fake. We recommend that you visit our Fake Horse Tricycles page first and then after you’ve studied it take a look at our Genuine Antique Horse tricycles page. If you still have questions, feel free to email us and we’ll see if we can help.
