#carousels

[thingsfromthedirt]

[black-salt-cage]

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[nat-stimmy]

Vintage Steam Powered Carousel Kettle (SOURCE)

[rileycruel]

[stimlita]

Carousel by uncrowful

[theragamuffininitiative]

You're into carousels? Do you have a personal favorite style of animal, or even a specific carousel animal? I don't know a ton about carousels, but my personal favorite is the tiger on the Looff carousel in Spokane. First carousel I'd ever ridden back when I was a kid, and I liked the tiger so much I picked it even though it was fixed on the ground.

I do love carousels! Particularly the late 1800-1930 golden age wood carved masterpieces with their band organs and their extravagant designs and various types. I have a story somewhere about a magical carousel that I have never fully finished, but I have loved them for a while. 😊

Now.

EVERYONE PLEASE LOOK AT THIS MAGNIFICENT ANIMAL

This carrousel as I understand is one of a tiny portion of 100 or so still intact (and in operation!) of the thousands that were built.

Charles Looff made it in 1909 (with help lol - for example,, your tiger may be a John Zalar piece, it is attributed to both) as a wedding gift for his daughter (!) and it has been rather remarkably kept since then.

The "sneaky tiger" is a beauty, you are incredibly valid for choosing him! The expressive eyes, the thick ruff, the single paw curled on top of the earth, the monkey behind his cantle, the sphinx on the saddle - what an icon. I believe there are only 3 known such tigers still in existence.

I found a photo of him from 1910! In this picture, your tiger is less than a year old. 🥺

As for me, I don't know that I have a single particular favorite.

Dentzel animals may generally be my favorites overall, I just love everything about them. (I think you would like Dentzel's tigers too, though they're quite different.) They are so lively and friendly looking. It's a little sad most carvers did not sign their work bc while Dentzel did create his own animals, he also hired some amazing carvers like Daniel C Muller and Salvatore Cernigliaro.

Here are some of my favorites by them: "Cherni" is remembered for possibly introducing the menagerie (non-horse) animals to the Dentzel production and is famous for his rabbits, including the rare "flirting rabbit" which is too precious for words:

A couple more Dentzel rabbits, possibly by Cernigliaro:

One in glaze which really shows off the woodwork vs the final paint:

I am also incredibly fond of Muller's horses (a few pictured together here but wow, they are as exquisite as they are varied and could be their own entire post - along with Charles Carmel's, not pictured here)

And I love Muller's hippocampuses....campi.... not sure. XD Anyways. Below is one in "park paint" (exactly what it sounds like, layers and layers of cheap paint applied by parks during annual maintenance) and then the same animal type (one of only three known in existence) after a glorious restoration far closer to what it would have originally looked like:

I also adore this last creature but can't find good info on it (I believe it is another Dentzel origin) or better photographs at the moment:

That's all the images tumblr will let me add to this post, but thank you so much for telling me about your tiger! What a charming creature, I'm so glad you got to experience him both rideable and very lovingly maintained. 😊👏

[Photos sourced from spokesman.com's article on the Spokane carousel, CarouselHistory.com, some auction pages, and Flickr (one of the tiger pics)] Also here's a really good article about Muller and some of the others! It also discusses the general and perceived difference between "folk" art and art of higher value and how the carousel carvers of the golden age deserve so distinctly to be in the latter category.

[marchenshoujo]