The Artisan Hall Series is a program where artists would visit the company and hand paint an entire run of models. The artist would sign and number each model. The early releases came with a paper Certificate of Authenticity signed and dated by Peter Stone. Later, each model came with a Collector Card with the model's description and a pre-printed signature by Peter Stone. Each run was limited to 200 pieces.
The first release was a Liver Chestnut Standing Drafter. To my knowledge, this model never had an official name. Painted by Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig, this run was done in two phases. The first phase was a chalky matte finish of 112 pieces, and the second phase had more of a satiny matte finish consisting of 88 pieces. Advertised in 1997, and produced and shipped early 1998.