Michael Ricker Pewter Clown on Unicycle — Signed and Dated 1986/1987, Estes Park Colorado

The whole thing is a held breath. One arm up for balance, the other tucked, costume ruffles caught mid-flutter, and underneath it all that single wheel doing the impossible. Whoever sculpted this understood something about timing — the figure isn't posing, it's between moves. It turns out we know who sculpted it. The top of the base carries the artist's signed copyright with a 1986 date — Michael Ricker (1940–2006), the Colorado pewter sculptor whose Estes Park studio produced hundreds of thousands of cast figurines across a forty-year career. The side of the base carries a separate, deep, legible 1987: the manufacturer's production date. So the design was finalized in 1986 and cast in pewter the following year — the same year Ricker's monumental miniature pewter town, Park City: America Remembered, was presented to President Gerald Ford. Clowns and circus subjects were a recurring lane in Ricker's output through the mid- and late-1980s: small narrative figures — jugglers, jesters, hoop-and-dog acts, magicians with rabbits — cast at the Ricker-Bartlett studio he founded with Norb Bartlett in the late 1960s. This one belongs to that family. We can't pin down a specific edition name or number from the marks alone (Ricker's larger limited editions came with certificates; smaller giftware pieces from this era often didn't), but the signature, the date, and the studio attribution are unambiguous. What makes this piece worth a second look is condition. The raised arm is still there, and still straight. Pewter at this gauge bends if you look at it sideways, and most of these figurines lost their lifted detail decades ago. This one came through intact, with even patina across the whole figure — the soft grey you want from cast pewter that's been sitting quietly on a shelf for the better part of forty years.

Details

• Maker: Michael Ricker (1940–2006), Estes Park, Colorado — Ricker-Bartlett Casting Studio
• Material: Cast pewter
• Height: Approximately 4 inches
• Base: Integral, cast as one piece with the figure
• Marks: Artist's signed copyright with 1986 date on top of base; "1987" manufacturer's production date deep-stamped on side
• Era: Designed 1986, produced 1987

Condition

Even patina across the whole figure — the soft grey you want from pewter that's been sitting quietly for forty years. No chips, no repairs, no bent components. The raised arm is fully intact and straight, which is the hardest thing to find on figurines of this kind.