Interesting question, Timothy.

I conducted an experiment to see if one (or more than one) seahorse exists. I placed my Point Judith next to my White Shoal in such a way that the seahorses were in the same field of view and closed one eye so as to avoid interocular distortions and illusions. I was able to see what appeared to me to be two distinct, differently colored images of seahorses in bas relief, apparently occupying different space at the same time. The result did not seem to change in spite of varying the intensity, wavelength and diffusion qualities of the lighting. Moreover, I was able to do so both while wearing my eyeglasses and while not (thinking that perhaps one image could have been a reflection in the lens). So, unless I had the singular misfortune to have viewed these pieces through a hole in the space-time continuum, or unless we ascribe supernatural or divine powers to these Hippocampi facsimiles, and discounting the possibility that an inverse image of one seahorse had burned its way into my retina causing an inverse but otherwise double image in my mind's eye (a possibility refuted by the photographic record), then one could reasonably conclude that the same seahorse is not present on all models. It would be interesting to see if this experimental result could be replicated by others. It would also be interesting to see if two different edition numbers of the same model have unique seahorses or if they share a single one.

Regarding the decision to place seahorses on the models, I too suspect it has something to do with the John Hines/ David Winter Cottages connection. It supposedly adds another level of interest and just a small amount of whimsy to each piece (without overdoing it, as with doggies and bunnies and such). Since it worked for the DWC series, and since it seems that Harbour Lights might have used DWC (at least in part) as a template for success…

One can only speculate why a seahorse was selected over say, a starfish, or some other hapless beached ocean dweller. Clearly, a beached right whale would detract from the lighthouse itself and run up materials and packaging costs unnecessarily. It might also run into some opposition from the Save the Whales crowd. Jellyfish would be too hard to simulate and too difficult to spot. Seahorses probably have it over horseshoe crabs, sea urchins, and other denizens of the piscatory persuasion in the whimsy department. All in all, seahorses seem to have been a pretty good choice.

Pushing the scientific envelope,

-Jaques-Yves Cousteau [Hmmm… How about mermaids?]