Carved Carousel Jumper Horse Carnival Circus

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Carved Carousel Jumper Horse Carnival Circus

About the Item

This gorgeous carousel horse once belonged to a summer camp in Glen Spey, NY. The camp owners acquired the whole merry-go-round in 1940 at an auction. It is attributed to Charles Looff of New York or C. W. Parker of Kansas.

Charles Looff
1852 - 1918
Charles Looff produced the first carousel to operate at Coney Island. Because of the popularity of the Coney Island Carousel, Charles Feltman commissioned Looff to make a carousel for him. Looff built his first three carousels entirely by himself. Because the carousels were so successful, he started his own company. Looff’s style included pleasant faces on the horses ans open mouths with teeth showing. He liked to vary the color and design of his trappings. Because he loved his country, many of his trappings were patriotic. Looff built some forty carousels during his lifetime. One of the most famous Looff carousels still operates at Crescent Park in Riverside, Rhode Island.
Looff was one of the first men to build an amusement park empire. He built a west coast factory in Long Beach, California, and started several amusement parks on the west coast. This self-made millionaire moved to California and managed all his properties until his death.
Looff joined the carousel industry with his first machine in 1875, carving a menagerie of animals from scrap wood gathered from the furniture company where he worked. He opened a shop in Brooklyn and soon turned out his second carousel, much more refined than the first, and installed it at Coney Island. Looff's creations, like Dentzel's, were reminiscent of the German style of carving. Both the Looff and Dentzel companies paralleled each other in design and production until the mid-1880's when the newly developed electric trolley had a profound effect on the amusement industry.
As with many manufacturers, the seeds of competition are nurtured within the parent company, and so it was with the carousel industry, particularly with Looff. As business increased in the 1890's, his staff of carpenters, carvers, and painters also increased. Among the forty talented craftsmen were four young carvers who where to later form their own companies: Carmel, Illions, Stein and Goldstein.
Charles Looff created horses in a simpler but more elegant style. The legs of Looff's jumping horses were slender and graceful and were always portrayed with a great deal of motion. In order to depict a greater sense of realism, several carvers, including Looff, designed manes with cut through openings. Although such manes produced dramatic effects, the difficulty and length of time involved in the carving process limited their use.
By about 1905 Looff started making saddles that resembled a scoop. This design left a good sized space beneath the cantle which Looff filled with a variety of gargoyles, flowers, cherub heads, and other miscellaneous carvings.
The production of Looff's horses ceased when he died in 1918.

Charles Wallace Parker
Parker, of Abilene, Kansas, bought a used carousel in 1892. He soon began doing his own repairs and repairs on other carousels. While doing the work he would replace the manufacturer's name with his own. In a few years, he began the C.W. Parker factory and began building "carry-us-alls" and other amusements rides. C.W. moved his factory to a larger facility that he built in Leavenworth in 1911. He continued the operation until his death in 1932. His son continued the company in Leavenworth in 1955 and moved to Florida.
Along the way, the Parker company produced approximately 1,000 carousels. The exact number is uncertain because of his "rebranding" of carousels in the early years. Only 16 of Parker's carousels are known to be in operation today, two of them at the museum. The present museum was opened in the spring of 2005.

Dimensions:
Height: 44 in (111.76 cm)Width: 45 in (114.3 cm)Depth: 10 in (25.4 cm)
Materials and Techniques:
Pine,Carved
Place of Origin:
United States
Period:
19th Century
Date of Manufacture:
1875-1900
Condition:
Excellent. Minor professional restoration due to paint loss and minor re-gluing of joints. No major restoration or replaced parts, except for the tail which was replaced with real horsehair. Most of the brown, red, blue, and yellow paint is original.
Seller Location:
Lenox, MA
Reference Number:
1stDibs: U080913851718