Westward Ho Chalk Cowboy

"WESTWARD HO!" HAND-PAINTED CHALKWARE CARICATURE COWBOY ON A BALKING MULE - COMPANION PIECE TO THE SIGNED SHERIFF FIGURE IN LOT 388 The companion to the sheriff, and the funnier of the two. A hand-painted chalkware - plaster - figure group of a whiskered old prospector-cowboy astride a mule that has planted its front feet and quit, head down and ears back, while the rider hauls back on the reins with his mouth wide open in mid-holler. He wears a broad floppy cream hat, a red shirt, a green polka-dot neckerchief, tan chaps, blue denim trousers, and dark boots, with a rolled bedroll or blanket pack lashed behind the saddle. The mule is finished in mottled gray-white and brown with a black mane, muzzle, tail, and hooves and a pink-lined ear and nostril, and the whole group sits on a shaped rectangular base painted green on top and cream around the skirt, incised on the front WESTWARD HO! It stands roughly 11 to 11.5 inches tall and roughly 9 to 9.5 inches long, so it has real shelf presence. This piece is unsigned on the base top, unlike the sheriff, and the only marking under the base is an illegible hand-inked scrawl. Given the identical material, palette, base treatment, hand-lettered incised title, and caricature style, it appears to be from the same series as the E. BORMAN signed figure offered in lot 388, and the two should be bought together by anybody collecting either one. Condition is honest and worn: there is a chip with a loss of material on the mule's flank behind the saddle showing raw white plaster, paint loss and rubbing throughout, and a scatter of cobwebs and grime. Sold as one figurine. Description Form - cast and hand-painted plaster, commonly called chalkware, modeled as a single group: a caricature cowboy or prospector mounted on a stubborn mule or burro that has stopped short with forelegs braced and head lowered. The rider is leaning back with both hands forward on the reins, mouth open, eyes wide, with a long dark beard and mustache, a hooked nose, and deeply exaggerated features. Dress consists of a large soft-brimmed cream hat, red shirt with the sleeves visible at the arms, a green neckerchief with white dots, tan chaps over blue trousers, and dark boots. A rolled pack or bedroll with molded strap detail is mounted behind the saddle, and the saddle itself carries molded horn, skirt, and cinch detail. The mule has a long face, laid-back ears, a black mane and forelock, a black brush tail, and black hooves, on a shaped rectangular base with a rounded front, green on the top surface and cream on the skirt. Size - approximately 11 to 11.5 inches tall overall, approximately 9 to 9.5 inches long from the mule's nose to the tail, with a base approximately 5 to 5.5 inches across, per the tape-measure photographs. In the height frame the tape stands on the shelf beside the piece, and in the length and base frames the tape lies flat on the shelf in front of the piece rather than hooked to it, so all of these figures are close estimates only. Bidders should verify all dimensions from the photographs. Marks - incised into the cream skirt on the front of the base, hand-lettered and paint-filled, reading WESTWARD HO! No artist signature, copyright symbol, mold number, company name, country of origin, paper label, or date is visible on the base top or anywhere on the figure, so none is claimed. The underside of the base is photographed and shows bare unpainted plaster with an old hand-inked black marking over two brushed white patches; that marking is illegible in the photographs and no reading of it is offered - it may be a price, an inventory number, initials, or nothing meaningful. Photographed on a dark oak shelf against a white wall. Nothing else appears in these frames; the single figurine pictured is the entire lot. The Milwaukee tape measure is a photographic reference only and is NOT included. Attribution note Chalkware is the collector term for figures cast in plaster of Paris and finished in hand-applied paint, a material long used for inexpensive decorative statuary, carnival prizes, and mid-century novelty and character figures, as described in general chalkware collecting references. Because it is plaster rather than ceramic, chalkware is soft, porous, easily chipped, and never waterproof, and condition drives value on these pieces more than anything else. On attribution, this is an inference and is presented as one. Lot 388 in this same sale is a chalkware caricature cowboy titled THE SHERIFF, incised on the base top with a copyright symbol and the signature E. BORMAN. This figure carries no signature at all, but it shares the same plaster body, the same palette of red, blue, green, cream, and black, the same green-over-cream base treatment, the same style of hand-lettered incised title on the base skirt, and the same exaggerated caricature modeling of the face and hands. On that basis it appears to be from the same series or the same maker, and the two pieces almost certai