Welcome to the magical world of Flying Horses. Flying Horses is a company designed for those with a feeling for the past and an eye for the future. It has developed out our experiences over more than a decade of studying and collecting the lore and artifacts of the golden age of the merry-go-round. Jo has had an affinity for carousels since childhood, when she designed over fifty carousel horses to replace her favor­ite merry-go-round in Long Beach, California, after it burned in 1943. Rol had always loved amusement parks and carnivals, but he never really recognized the enchantment of the merry-go-round until setting out to restore our first carousel figure, a charming Dutch Stoomcarousel horse purchased in 1959. We found an exciting sense of shared creativity in freeing the little horse from his encasement of tin patches and the encrustations of daubed-on paints and seeing him dance forth rejuvenated with crisp, skillful carving and shining brass embellishments that were totally hidden in his neglected state. One such experience led to another. With each addition and each personal contact came new bits of information and involvement, endorsed now by communication with other collectors and enthusiasts.

        The attainment of a long-held goal came in the spring of 1970 with the discovery of the missing horses from the Feltman and Stubbmann carousels of Coney Island. We had been studying and searching for Illions carvings for years, and this extraordinary find gave us the chance not only to acquire these classic carvings for ourselves but also to share them with others. This first catalog is an invitation to examine these beautiful horses and to experience some of the flavor of the era that created them.