CHARLES LOOFF, CIRCA 1885

Charles Looff arrived in America in 1870. He first worked in Brooklyn as a furniture carver, but he soon convinced the owner of the Coney Island beach pavilion to install a handcrafted carousel. His days spent working as a furniture craftsman, he worked on the carousel at night in a basement, where he carved and painted every animal by himself. His carousel combined a mixture of horses and menagerie animals, decorated with etched mirror ornaments that came to be known as The Coney Island style. Finishing the Coney Island carousel in 1876, Looff embarked as a successful career as a carousel craftsman. As the demand for his carousels increased, Looff hired a number of talented carvers, including Marcus Charles Illions, Charles Carmel and John Zalar.

This charming example demonstrates Looff's love of animals and his attention to detail. Elephants are rare menagerie examples and only a small number from Looff's shop are known to exist. An elephant of similar diminutive size is illustrated in Charlotte Dinger, The Art of the Carousel (New Jersey, 1983), p. 72.