Randall's Urban Architectural Sculptures

I’ve wanted a wood carousel horse or a replica for quite a long time, but not one made out of cheap plastic, fiberglass or resin- there’s plenty of htose around oming from Asia now. I’d find some old ones around but they seem to be hot collector’s items and are often on auction sites going for a couple thousand or more, I even saw one priced an insane $11,000, while new ones start around $2000
But then I found this wood one in Michigan, the seller who was a horse person had several other high quality items for sale like a restored grand piano, mink coat and a $4,900 antique hutch from Paris, so given the quality of their other items I doubt the horse was cheap when they bought it new about 25 years ago.

Buying antiques or collectibes one has to educate themselves first, and that I did before looking and buying, of course I learned right off that genuine pieces don’t have detachable legs etc, so if one you are looking at has this its NOT a real carousel figure but is a decorative replica and if that is what you are looking for then you go in with your eyes open and not pay antique prices for the item.

Real ones are also never SOLID wood, those are replicas as well!

What I liked about this one besides being wood- was the head and expressive ears as well as the pastel paint, it is 50″ long and about 43″ tall, so it’s a good sized figure. The shipping was estimated to be $125 but turned out to be just a few dollars less, and the seller actually refunded that which was a pleasant surprise- especially knowing the work and trouble packing entails.

I took my camcorder with me on a trip to Ft Dodge and captured some shots of this lion on the old Sears Building (1916)

He is about 20″ X 30″, the lion is on the 8th floor, the Canon’s 48X zoom and ability to take still images was what it took to get this

I bought this gothic stand

I found on an antiques network which I was browsing- it arrived today, just as the seller described it- 12 pounds of solid cast brass throughout, even the flat top plate is a solid 1/8″
thick piece of brass attached with 4 brass machine screws.

I don’t think it’s very old, I get the feeling of 1970′s just because the underside inside is clean and would be difficult TO clean so I don’t get the feeling of age ala 1900- 1920.

It has 4 dog-like gargoyle feet and of course the architectural gothic motifs, I’m guessing it was a missal stand from some closed up church. A search on several major church supply sites found loads of similar type stands but none even close to this design. The ones I did see were priced way up there, with $1,000 seeming to be an average price-tag.

It seems to have something on the surface, maybe 10K gold, not sure. There’s no stamps or marks of any kind to indicate a maker.

I’ve assembled a collage of some possible model ideas, from top left they are;

Eagle cornice, Gnome from 90 West St- Cass Gilbert landmark, owl cornice 90 West St, Art Deco from the old West Side Highway- design by Rene Chambelain, Board of Education seal with open book from PS 27 on 42nd street, 1906, Art Deco frieze panel- very elaborate low relief underwater life scene.

As these are just possibles, I haven’t thought about sizes or other details on these as of yet, the underwater Art Deco has been requested by a client so that will likely be done first or early.