Horse Hunting

When I was little, on summer weekends my father would take me to farm or house auctions where we would watch the action and sometimes my father would buy a box of miscellaneous junk that the auctioneer had assembled from stuff he didn't think would sell separately.  Almost always, the box sold for a quarter, and after we returned home and investigated the contents, we would find more than a quarter in loose change.  I have no idea what caused my father to buy one box rather than another, but often the boxes contained a jar of buttons that Dad would give to my mother for her "button collection," which would irritate her because she didn't have a button collection, just a collection of jars of buttons that he had given her, in part, I think, because he knew it annoyed her.  She was a nurse; she didn't sew, didn't cook particularly well, and wasn't terrible interested in "keeping house."

I remember those auctions with fondness.  They were one of the few activities we engaged in together that did not include competition.  They had an air of treasure hunt about them that we both enjoyed.  You never knew what marvelous stuff you might find.  I still go to auctions, estate sales, garage and yard sales, always on the lookout for something I didn't know I wanted, still enjoy the action even when I'm not buying.  I especially enjoy high end auctions and antique shows where museum quality items are for sale that I can touch and examine, unlike the items in museums.

For more than 30 years Deb and I have gone almost every six weeks or so to an auction in Portland and watched some fascinating stuff go on the block: jewelry, animal mounts, tall case clocks, art work, antiques of all kinds.  Perhaps the strangest was a giraffe mounted as if it were half out of the wall, its front legs down, its head up, at least 20 feet tall.  I mention it because Deb and I talked to a friend who had been under bidder on the giraffe.  He was at the auction looking to buy a standing Russian Grizzly (From Russia's Kamchatka peninsula, Russian far east, 1996.  Height including stand: 7'8").  He had been the under bidder for the bear at the same auction several years before when it sold for more than he had allotted.

I'm not sure if the recession is over, but there were more people attending than I have ever seen; the crew kept setting up more chairs, people lined the walls and crowded the back, a couple even took chairs from the next night's auction to sit on.  It could be, of course, that times are tough enough that people were there, like us, looking for bargains.  We were particularly interested in a carousel horse from the Jantzen Beach amusement park, a merry-go-round that Deb had ridden many times as a child.  She may even have ridden this very horse.  I've always been attracted to carousel animals, but they rarely come on the market, and when they do, they usually demand high prices.

The catalogue listed this one as "VINTAGE CARVED AND PAINTED WOOD CAROUSEL HORSE ON STAND, C.W. Parker Co., Leavenworth, Kansas, c. 1920's, an original inside row jumper from the 1921 Parker Carousel, Jantzen Beach Amusement Park, Portland, Oregon.  Provenance: Property of John Bauld, retired Jantzen Beach Amusement Park employee.  Length - 69.5 inches."

We were hoping that, given the economy, it might go cheap.  The Rolls went high but the bear went for half its low estimate.  We had hopes.  The bidding started low, then stalled at a nice price and I thought we were going to get a bargain, but a phone bidder from the East Coast took up the bidding.  Later, we were told he was concerned about shipping costs so he dropped out.  We won the horse for less than the low estimate.

The horse is made up of blocks of wood glued together, carved and painted.  Glass reflectors are set in the saddle and harness, with one replaced by plastic.  A metal plate has been bolted to the belly to provide a secure rest for the pegs on the stand.  Most surprising, however: the four shoes are iron, "C W Parker Leavenworth" cast onto them, and a date that I can't quite make out.  I talked with the consignor by phone.  He said that in the carousel workshop on Hayden Island there were a number of extra animals lying around.  During one reconditioning, the superintendent gave animals to some of the employees.  He said he built the stand for this horse but he did not paint it or touch it up.

Information about the carousel is available on the internet.  One source says the merry-go-round was built in 1904 for the St. Louis World's Fair.  Some of the hand carved horses were made by inmates of the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas.

Another says: "The Jantzen Beach SuperCenter Merry-Go-Round was designed and built in 1921 at the C.W. Parker Amusement Company in Leavenworth, Kansas.  It was one of the only four 'superior style' machines Parker built.  This large, four abreast machine was constructed as a 'park model' rather than the more commonly manufactured portable machines built for the traveling carnivals.  The horses are some of the most elaborate ever carved by the Parker Company and many are unique, one of a kind animals.  This 72-horse Merry-Go-Round operated at the Venice Beach, California Pier from 1921 until 1927.  It survived a major fire and was put into storage until1928 when it was shipped to Jantzen Beach Amusement Park, where it operated for 42 years.  The park was razed in 1970 to accommodate building the Jantzen Beach Shopping Center.  At that time it was refurbished and rebuilt for its debut in the Center, which opened in September 1972.  After operating for 22 years inside the shopping center, the Merry-Go-Round underwent a thorough $500,000 restoration in 1995 and was relocated to become the 'center piece' of the new Jantzen Beach SuperCenter." (Source: Jantzen Beach SuperCenter website, 2006)

A third source says:  Legend has it that there are a couple ghost children in the center of the carousel. "Have you seen the children?  It is a boy and a girl.  They play in the center of the merry-go-round.... inside, behind the door.  They seem happy and full of spirit but every so often they turn and gaze, as if looking for their mother.  Have you seen them?"