Painted Ponies: American Carousel Art

by William Manns, Peggy Shank, Marianne Stevens

Painted Ponies is the classic book of antique carousel art. This extraordinary coffee table style book presents the finest carving examples by the most renowned carousel artists. The rarest horses and most unique menagerie animals were selected from America's premier private collections and antique operating carousels. Painted Ponies contains useful guides, charts, and directories for collectors, carvers, artists, and enthusiasts. This book contains over 650 color photographs, 256 pages, 9"x11.5", deluxe hardcover edition.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, History

256 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1986

Reviews

[Deborah Collin · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are three "must have" books for anyone interested in carving, restoring, or collecting carousel figures, William Manns' "Painted Ponies," Charlotte Dinger's "The Art of the Carousel," and Tobin Fraley's "The Carousel Animal." All are well written, informative, and absolutely beautiful.

I eagerly awaited their publication, and grabbed a copy of each when they were hot off the presses, roughly thirty years ago. Nothing published since has ever come close. They remain the very best of the batch.

Of the three, "Painted Ponies" is still my favorite, with Charlotte Dinger's book a close second. Both cover the subject very well, both feature breathtaking color photographs, and both give a nice historical perspective. "Painted Ponies" just does a slightly better job of presentation.

History, style, and primary artists are all discussed in detail, and there are glorious old factory photographs in among the 600 dramatic and artistically composed color photos.

For Americana enthusiasts in general, and woodcarvers in particular, it doesn't get better than this.

[Nic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contains good information about carousels and their carvers with many photos of carousels throughout American history. The photo captions were very repetitive, often repeating verbatim from the text.