I’m hoping someone recognizes the handiwork here or has some insights into its making based on the pictures I’ve included. I know they’re not the best, but I’m at work right now and won’t be able to take closer pictures until this evening. It’s roughly 5 feet tall and five feet wide and appears to be varnished pine to my eye, with the horse seemingly made of roughly 1.5-inch thick boards that I’m guessing were glued together and machined. There are lots of extraordinary details, like horseshoes that look convincingly real, teeth in the horse’s mouth, really incredible hair on the mane (which looks different on each side, as you can see in the pictures), the list goes on and on. It’s by far the most incredible rocking horse I have ever seen, and there is no maker’s mark or anything on it anywhere that I can find.
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I believe there is a school up in Oregon that teaches rocking horse carving. If you can Google and find them, they may have a better idea.
Thanks!
Once upon a time,well late 1800s into the early 20th century there were carousel manufactures here in the US and in Europe. Every city had to have one, every traveling fair had one. Wealthy royals and just plain rich people had their own. Many are still in operation. The one in San Francisco was by a company named Dentzel. Another company was the Philadelphia Toboggan Co. These companies employed many skilled carvers and some of those carvers have names familiar to carousel enthusiasts. We , my family, had a pilgrimage to the one in SF and annual photos from when my kids were infants until they were adults and at least a couple with the grandkid. I have rules, if Im in Italy I never pass a church without stepping inside and if im near a carousel always take a look. Its never disappointing.
The skill level and detail on those carousels is almost always astonishing. There would be any number of people capable of making that rocking horse as there were probably quite a few people employed full time in the horse carving industry.
As a kid, I road the one in San Francisco a lot. My dad liked to take us there and we lived nearby. Also did the one in Santa Cruz a fair bit as well. Carousels always put a smile on my face.