Monday, June 10, 2013

Somewhere between here and the Rocky Mountains…

lil buckaroo

The Wallace China Co. made  a three-piece “Little Buckaroo Chuck Set” as part of its Westward Ho line of dinnerware.

The Little Buckaroo plate, bowl and cup are being reproduced these days by the True West Co. of Royse City, Texas. The True West version is shown above. The set goes for $89 and you can buy each piece separately – $37 for the plate, $31 for the bowl and $21 for the cup.

I bought an original Little Buckaroo plate on Ebay in February and have been searching for the other two pieces ever since.

Then last week, an Ebay vendor in Idaho Springs, Colo. offered a pair of bowls and a pair of cups which I was able to snipe last Friday night for $76. That may seem like a lot, but they are original Wallace manufacture and True West reproductions would have cost $104. The True West version of the plate has a rather poor reproduction of the original Till Goodan artwork, with a bunch of cheesy colors added that were not present in the superior original. Likewise, the True West bowl is an inferior reproduction.

I suppose I should be on the lookout for another plate now, so as to have two complete chuck sets for the occasional young dinner guests.

The seller put them into the mail this morning, so the waiting has begun.

It occurred to me the other day that there is a curiously happy feeling involved with anticipating the arrival of a package, either by mail or commercial carrier. I think I’m always happier when I know something like this is in the pipeline. (Just writing that gives me pause and makes me wonder if there isn’t a bit of the Home Shopping Channel shopaholic in me. Naaaah, I’m just a collector.)

Here’s the original Wallace Little Buckaroo Plate. Notice the finer detail in the graphic. Also the Till Goodan signature in the bottom left.

little buckaroo

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