Painted Ponies: American Carousel Art

Awesome book! An absolute must for anyone interested in American Carousel Art! Loaded with close up photos of all the love of labor that went into these beautiful animals! Brings back many memories of the Great Danbury Fair in Danbury, CT which now unfortunately is a shopping mall.

OK I gotta give the book a great review as one of the authors is a very dear friend. (Marianne Stevens) I love the photos of the carousel that she purchased from my cousins! Seriously though this book is an absolute must have for anybody not only interested in Carousels but also in amusement park history. It's a wonderful coffe table book with to die for color photographs and fascinating information. Even children will love this book! It's beautifully done with glossy photos. Absolutely super. Warren Crandall

A delightful book on a vanishing art form: hand carved carousel animals, sleighs, and ornaments. The color photographs are excellent. The background on merry-go-rounds and round-abouts is fun. The carvers and their companies are discussed in detail. Timelines, a directory, publications, restoration services, music, and a brief bibliography are included. I would have preferred an annotated bibliography, and citations of non-bound materials. In any event, this one is a keeper, and will give many hours of enjoyment.

Painted Ponies is THE best book on carousel art. We own 80 carousel animals & every book on fairground art but Painted Ponies is the only book we use as a reference. Whether you are an enthusiast, a first time buyer or an experienced collector, the hundreds of color photos are very useful to identify horses. It was also a wonderful source for paint & color ideas during the restoration of our antique carousels & animals.

Painted Ponies was the first book I read dealing with carousel ponies. It inspired further interest. The book is load with pictures. The text deals with the primary carousel styles: Philadelphia; Coney Island; and Country Fair. In addition there are appendixes that deal with restoration services and currently operating carousels from the early 1900s.