A true labour of love:

Rapture is a very unusual and early Ayres rocking horse, with a remarkable, almost unknown stand design. She has beautiful carving and a jaunty demeanour full of life.

We were thrilled to find quite a bit of original paint under the disastrous overpainting, a delightful surprise. What remains will be preserved as best we can, missing gesso will be filled in and new paint matched to old.

Rapture's repairs are almost complete and we expect to see this very special rocking horse back to being beautiful by September 2012

Sometimes a rocking horse seems to find you - Rapture's story is an example of the improbable ways that horse and person find one another.

We became aware that she was available the night before she went up for auction, and knew straight away that THIS is a very special horse. We emailed to make sure the seller was prepared to sell her overseas. The next morning was chaotic, by the time it was possible to attend to emails, see the seller's reply that he was happy to take on the extra responsibility, the auction had come and gone - with the horse unsold! We immediately bought her and named her Rapture for the sheer delight at having her.

We initially thought it had been on bows, which had suffered worse treatment than the horse itself and the stand was improvised but the more we thought about it the unlikelier that seemed, and the more we looked at photos of the stand the less it looked like an improvisation (hoof rails too short, no sign - in a blurry little photo) of holes being drilled.

We were absolutely ecstatic to find, when she arrived, that this curious arrangement is in fact original, making Rapture very rare, pretty much one of a kind.

Rapture is the star of our permanent collection and not for sale.