Featured Thrift find - large old horse head - french restaurant's advertising they sell horse meat?

I found this yesterday at my regular thrift store & immediately recognized it - it was found in a storage unit won at auction on one of my favorite tv shows; Storage Wars!
The unit winners (Brandi & Jarrod) didn't know what it was & so they took it to be checked out - a antique dealer told them it was used to hang outside of restaurants in France to show they sold horse meat!! (I love horses - I had one as a child - and could never even try it, sorry. PS - and my favorite dish is escargot!)

But there is an issue with mine - while the back plaque is metal, the actual horse's head doesn't feel like metal/cast iron (a google image search turned up several that matched mine exactly
((SALE PENDING) Life Size Cast Iron Horse Head Wall Plaque 30″H | Housatonic Trading Co.

French Cast Iron Horse Head Bust Trade Sign at 1stDibs

Horse's head Cast iron sculpture Around 1900 65 x 36 x … | Drouot.com )

but they were all made of cast iron) and putting a magnet on it, it doesn't stick; it just slides off (but it does stick to the back plaque the head is connected to)
It measures 32" high x 15" wide
Also if you look at the nick on the mouth it is white-ish inside, not metal. What do I have?
A cast of a older, cast iron one?
Thanks for any help with this!

 

Maybe not restaurants but horse butchers? Apparently it is cheaper than beef etc, so it is considered poor people's meat in the regions where it is sold. Poor people can't afford to go to restaurants.

A former horse butcher's shop in France, with a horse's head sign:

Looks like it.

 

Have you seen any that aren't made of cast iron?
Do they still serve horse(please no!) - maybe it's a newer one for newer butcher shop?
Or just decorative? (I bet there are 1,000s of little girls who would like it in their room - probably how I will market it & leave of the use as a butcher's sign if newer like I think!

 

I have never seen any at all, in fact I have never seen a horse butcher's shop.

I believe there are still some horse butchers in France and Belgium, maybe other countries as well.
Probably not as many as there used to be, I guess poor people in those regions have switched from eating horse meat to eating junk food, which is the cheap option now.

I think it is a replica. I don't think it would survive being outside on a shop front for long.

Good idea.

 

Those were reproduced as decorative kitchen items.

Debora

 

I was watching a show the other night about people who buy wild horses and auction them off for slaughter. There apparently are too many wild horses in certain parts of the USA. I don't think they are really supposed to give them to slaughter houses, but they find a way to do it.
I owned horses and could never imaginr eating horse meat.

 

Journey- I visit Germany often. Certain markets we have gone to still sell it. I have never had it, nor would I personally try it. Different countries have different meat offerings. My husband was stationed in Korea, he would never eat out unless his official translator was with him for this reason.

 

When I was five growing up in Manchester NH we were poor and we ate horse steak. It actually tastes pretty good. Yes, there are countries that still eat it. I had read that during the mad cow epidemic, some countries had reverted to horse meat. It's a strange taboo where cows are considered edible but horses aren't. I'm sure it had to do with the fact that horses were necessary forms of transportation and cows weren't.

 

A friend I spoke with reminded me about news breaks of horses being stolen and found slaughtered - here in Miami!
I guess it's because of the large amount of different people from different countries living here why they would do that when there's so many big grocery stores everywhere - and I probably consciously forgot about it because I didn't want to think about it !

 

Journey I’m in Broward and many years ago it was a problem here as well.

 

I found this Godfather poster and I just had to do it!

 

Yes, horse meat is still available in Belgium and France, but I haven't noticed the horse head sign anymore. I am not aware of animal specific butchers these days.

None the less it's a cool item. If it's new/repro, you could paint it a bold color!

 

My grandma was the biggest horse fan I ever saw
Every picture in the house contained horses
She kept a number of horses and ponies until she couldn't afford feed for them anymore
She would drive two towns over to buy horse meat to eat
It was really not much different from beef but too lean for me

There are no wild horses in the Americas - only feral
They do not belong and should be penned or exterminated
They are endangering wild species and ruining habitat for all

 

What about the pony run done each year - is it on east coast? - where they need them on an island and then make them adoptable?
Maybe not in america?

 

Does anyone have any idea what head is made of? Backing is metal but head isn't - magnet does not stick to it.
I need to describe it to list it but can't find any description except 'cast iron'