Dentzel Company

Eden Galleries, Salem, New York, 1973

American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum, p. 359, fig. 325

Old loss (oxidized) to saddle.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The Dentzel Company, besides being the first carousel maker in this country, was also one of the largest and most successful workshops, operating for more than sixty years. Gustav Dentzel immigrated to Philadelphia from Germany in 1860. After a profitable tour with his first carousel seven years later, he changed the name of his cabinet shop to "G.A. Dentzel, Steam and Horsepower Caroussell Builder." By the mid-1880s, the Dentzel workshop was creating a variety of different animals noted for their realism and elegant design. As the popularity of carousels increased, business expanded, and by 1903 the company was building five or six carousels a year.¹

When Dentzel died in 1909, his son, William, assumed control of the family business. This was the era of the grand carousel, elaborate steam-driven machines that featured a menagerie of animals, three and four abreast. In addition to horses, which were always favorites, lions, tigers, giraffes, ostriches, pigs, cats, swans, and other animals were included in larger carousels at seaside resorts and amusement parks across the country. This rabbit was a jumper, designed for an inside row. It is thought to have been used in Far Rockaway, New York. A Dentzel carousel did, in fact, operate at Rockaway Beach for a number of years, but an undated photograph of it shows only horses. This remains inconclusive, though, because a menagerie carousel could have been in use at some other time.²

Over the years, many talented carvers worked for the Dentzels. Among the most prominent was Salvatore Cernigliaro, an Italian-trained furniture carver who joined the company in 1903. Cernigliaro has been credited with developing this type of rabbit around 1907.³ The popularity of carousels peaked at about 1920. William Dentzel died in 1928, and what remained of the company was sold to the Philadelphia Toboggan Company, which stopped making carousels in 1934. None of the old workshops survived the Depression. -R.S. 

¹ Tobin Fraley, The Carousel Animal (Berkeley, Calif.: Zephyr Press, 1983), p.1L
² Frederick Fried, A Pictorial History of the Carousel (Cranbury, N.J.: A.S. Barnes, 1964), p. 61. I would like to thank Tobin Fraley for bringing this to my attention.
³ Ibid., p. 123, and William Manns and Peggy Shank, Painted Ponies: American Carousel Art (Millwood, N.Y.: Zon International Publishing, 1986), p. 44.