Salesman's Model Carousel Horse, ca. 1925
GUEST: So, I got this from my mom, who got it from my great-grandfather. My great-grandfather was a master carpenter for Euclid Beach Park, which is a now-closed amusement park on the east side of Cleveland.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: And he was leaving work and found it in the trash. He decided to take it home. He had two daughters, so he thought they might like it. It's from Philadelphia Toboggan Company. They made small ones to sell, and that's what they would bring to sell the carousel.
APPRAISER: And when did he work at the amusement park?
GUEST: I believe 1936 or '38, to the 1940s.
APPRAISER: It was made by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: It's a company that specialized in the production of carousels as well as, uh, roller coasters. So with the company being founded in 1904, and your great-grandfather working at the park by the sort of late 1930s, we can obviously very safely date this to perhaps the 1920s, early '30s. They were known for their very detailed, very lifelike figures that they made. And, and-- and I agree with you. This is almost certainly a salesman's model to show both the, the style of figures that they made for carousels, but also the quality of their work. It's constructed of carved and painted wood. It has glass eyes. I love the fact that it is... it has a complete array of very lifelike details, including the teeth and tongue in the mouth.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: Very nicely carved and painted. The saddle has all of the, the tooling marks in black there that you would see on a, on a full-size real saddle. And of course, the, uh, the saddle blanket being red with the yellow striping and then the gold-painted trim at the bottom representing fringe. And I also really appreciate the fact that at the back corner of the saddle blanket, you have carved there the PTC for Philadelphia Toboggan Company.
GUEST: Yeah, it was... Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: There's a little bit of very nice restoration to it. The artist captured the muscle structures, the hooves, took great care to very carefully repair the top of the ear there, and as well as the rear hoof and joint in the leg there. And I actually really personally like the fact that they didn't repaint those restored areas.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: It's restored to show the form and the elegance of the piece, but not trying to hide the fact that it is a restoration. Carousel horses are quite collectible.
GUEST: Oh, okay.
APPRAISER: But they're very large. Something like this, being a small version of that, as a salesman model...
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: ...we think would likely appeal more so to collectors than a full-size horse. Because think about it, if you had a full-size carousel horse...
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: ...where are you going to put it in your house? If it were to be offered in an auction setting...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...I would suggest an, an auction estimate of between $4,000 and $6,000 for it.
GUEST: Oh, wow. Okay. That's more than I thought.
APPRAISER: I think a very fair insurance valuation for it would be about $8,000.
GUEST: Okay.
$4,000 Auction
$8,000 Insurance
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Understanding Our Appraisals
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Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
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