Reindeer Pulling Victorian Sleigh

Our Victorian sleigh collectible figurines are 17 inches long, 9� inches tall and 6� inches across. The Victorian sleigh collectible figurines consist of a white reindeer with bells on his harness, a white blanket over his back and decorations of holly and pine cones on his back and antlers. The Reindeer figurine is pulling a Victorian carriage sled. There is a Victorian couple sitting in the sled surrounded by beautifully wrapped gifts and a small decorated tree. There is a brown teddy bear sitting at their feet. The man is dressed in a silver top hat with a beige and silver scarf around his neck. He has a light blue top coat and gray slacks and is holding a pair of blue and white gloves. The woman in the Victorian sleigh collectible figurine is wearing a white hat with a silver band and decorated with two feathers. She has a gray coat with white fur trim and a white blanket across her lap. The Victorian sleigh collectible figurine is ivory and silver and travels over a snowy scene.

History of the Sleigh.
A sled is a vehicle that has parallel runners instead of wheels, so that it can move easily over snow or ice. In the Far North, where snow and ice cover the ground for many months of the year, sleds are the chief means of transportation People in parts of Alaska and Canada�s Yukon Territory travel on sleds pulled by huskies.
Alaskan sleds are built to stand the roughest travel. The most common Alaskan sled is the Nome sledge, a long, narrow type with basketlike sides. A good team of dogs, hitched to a Nome sledge, can haul 1,000 pounds of cargo. The Nansen sled, made of wood and lashed with rawhide, is wider and lighter than the Nome sledge. A 30 pound Nansen sled can carry a 600 pound load. Sleighs called Troikas are used in Russia. They are drawn by horses or reindeer. In Lapland, reindeer pull sledges carrying heavy goods.
In early times, people made sledges from logs tied together. The sledges were used to haul cargo over both snow and bare ground. Later, people found that the sled would move more easily and quickly if wooden slats, called runners, were fastened beneath the logs.
Some North American Indians used a toboggan sled that looked like a canoe on a pair of runners. The Pilgrims made sleds from a box set on runners.
After 1870, the coasting sled came into use in the United States. The original coasting sled was the Clipper type. It was built low, with long, pointed sides and runners of round steel rods. The �girls sled was a light, short box, with high, cutout or skeleton sides and wide, flat runners. The double runner or Bobsled is formed of two clipper sleds joined end to end by a board. The rider steers the sled by means of ropes, a wheel, or a crossbar. Four to 10 people ride in a bobsled. Specially designed bobsleds of steel and fiberglass are used for racing in winter sports events.
History of Reindeer.
The reindeer is a deer of northern Europe and Asia which is closely related to the North American caribou. It can be tamed and has become one of man�s most valuable possessions in the arctic regions. Reindeer and caribou differ from other members of the deer family by having large, deeply cleft hoofs, a hairy muzzle and somewhat broader antlers, borne by both male and female. Reindeer stand about three and a half feet high and weigh about three hundred pounds. They are smaller and have shorter legs than the caribou. This has probably come about by selection over the centuries as the owners sought to get an animal that could be managed. The wild caribou is too big and strong, as well as too obstinate to be tamed successfully.
If it were not for the reindeer, the people of Lapland would have no means of transportation in their cold and barren country. These animals can draw their sledges over the snow at the rate of twelve to fifteen miles an hour. Reindeer have endurance as well as swiftness, for they can travel with a load of from two hundred and fifty to three hundred pounds for hours at a time. To the lowland Laplanders, the reindeer is horse, sheep and cow, all in one. The animals furnish the people with shelter. In the summer, reindeer meat is cured and great quantities of cheese are made from the surplus milk and stored for use through the long winter. Many of the animals run wild, but are lured into traps by the use of trained decoy reindeer. They are given ownership marks by cutting or biting out notches from the ears and are then trained. They wander about near their owner�s home and fond their food under the snow.