I believe this is a modern carving and not by one of the carousel companies that could be found on the east coast of the US from 1870 to 1960. The carving is not sophisticated and horses in the Coney Island style will have real horse hair tails, not carved ones. SOmetimes carved tails have been added later, but the carving is not refined enough to be attributed to an original carving.
This is definitely an Asian knockoff, but better than many I've seen
Carousel horse carvers didn't have sales reps that carried demos/samples to sell their work. They would draw designs for the buyer's approval
Here's what makes this easy to see why it is not an original US carved carousel from the 1900's:
The hooves look like inverted flower pots. The body is too thin, the legs are chunky and the "ankles" are too thin for the legs. The tail, although better than many asain knock offs still has the combed carved affect. The chest is too short which makes the legs look too long and are not tapering as a real carousel horse, or a real horse for that matter.
trappings are not detailed nearly enough and I would bet that even though you haven't shown the other side of the horse, the other side is identical to the one showing
All these characteristics make me say for sure it is not an authentic piece carved by any of the original carvers of carousel horses
Re: DEMO CAROUSEL HORSE
I believe this is a modern carving and not by one of the carousel companies that could be found on the east coast of the US from 1870 to 1960. The carving is not sophisticated and horses in the Coney Island style will have real horse hair tails, not carved ones. SOmetimes carved tails have been added later, but the carving is not refined enough to be attributed to an original carving.
Re: DEMO CAROUSEL HORSE
I agree with the other poster
This is definitely an Asian knockoff, but better than many I've seen
Carousel horse carvers didn't have sales reps that carried demos/samples to sell their work. They would draw designs for the buyer's approval
Here's what makes this easy to see why it is not an original US carved carousel from the 1900's:
The hooves look like inverted flower pots. The body is too thin, the legs are chunky and the "ankles" are too thin for the legs. The tail, although better than many asain knock offs still has the combed carved affect. The chest is too short which makes the legs look too long and are not tapering as a real carousel horse, or a real horse for that matter.
trappings are not detailed nearly enough and I would bet that even though you haven't shown the other side of the horse, the other side is identical to the one showing
All these characteristics make me say for sure it is not an authentic piece carved by any of the original carvers of carousel horses