Restoring art you can climb aboard: Carousel gets sprucing up

Daily Press (Newport News, Va.) (MCT) - If anyone knows the Hampton, Va., Carousel like the back of his hand, it's got to be the man who restored the historic 1920 merry-go-round 17 years ago.

Bill Finkelstein spent countless hours probing beneath the oft-painted surfaces of the old wooden steeds, searching for signs of the deft brushwork and detailed carving that marked them as some of the finest created by the fabled Philadelphia Toboggan Co.

His Connecticut shop still has file cabinets full of photographs and notes documenting the months of painstaking work it took to study _ then resurrect _ each of the carousel's 48 figures.

Even after all that up-close labor, however _ not to mention his annual visits for touch-ups and repairs _ Finkelstein seldom fails to show his appreciation whenever he steps onto the carousel's vintage heart-pine platform. Of all the examples he's seen and restored, "PTC 50" _ as it's known to aficionados _ ranks among the best. And with 10 newly revived figures freshly installed after three months of work in his shop, it now looks even better.

"Just look at the character in this horse. Look at the way it holds its head. Look at its expression. This is the one I would take home with me if I could," he says, laying his hand on the head of a spectacularly carved and painted mount.

"It's pieces like this that make the Hampton Carousel so exceptional. It's easily in the 90th percentile."

Freshly painted, varnished and often gilded, too, the eye-catching herd of 10 newly restored horses represents only the first step in an effort to revive all the figures of what was once one of the most popular attractions at long-gone Buckroe Beach amusement park.

It also represents the first fruits of a city-funded $430,000 project to upgrade the downtown waterfront square known as Carousel Park _ and transform the building in which the carousel is now housed from an unheated pavilion into a closed and carefully monitored museum-quality environment.

With no temperature and moisture controls or ultra-violet light protection, most of the horses originally restored between 1988 and 1991 at a cost of $380,000 have yellowed noticeably over time.

But with the recently completed upgrades to the huge doors and large expanses of window glass as well as a new heating and air conditioning system, the stage has been set for a second and much more long-lasting round of restoration.

"You can see how the colors have changed. That horse used to be white _ believe it or not _ but now all the colors are gone," Finkelstein says, describing one of the yellowed mounts.

"Now look at this one we've just finished. It's the lead figure. And it will stay looking like this now that it's in a controlled environment."

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All 10 of the newly restored horses come from the outer ring of the carousel, where _ traditionally _ the figures are always larger, more animated and more detailed.

At the Philadelphia Toboggan Co., highly skilled artisans such as Italian immigrant Frank Carletta and first-generation German-American craftsman Daniel C. Muller would have carved the heads and prominent outer sides of the figures as well as the two chariots, while apprentices worked on the less visible inside surfaces.

Talented painters would have followed, bringing out still more details of decoration, character and physique with carefully applied strokes of their brushes. Gilders played a special role, too, adding gleaming expanses of gold and silver leaf to such elements as the armor on the lead horse.

With gold leaf now selling at more than $550 for a packet of 20 books, the cost of replicating these original 1920 surfaces now ranges in the neighborhood of $2,000 for the most detailed figures, Finkelstein says. But that total includes a daunting amount of meticulous handwork as well as pricey materials.

"People always ask if we use an air brush. But it's all done by hand _ just the way it was done originally," Finkelstein says.

"You have to cut all the edges. You have to wrap everything. You have to keep it crisp and clear in addition to bringing out the shadows. So it's not a quick or easy endeavor."

Many contributors to the original 1988-91 restoration campaign have chipped in to help pay for the new round of work, which will continue in stages until all the figures are finished.

But the Virginia Air & Space Center, which operates the carousel for the city, is still seeking donors to meet a total bill estimated at $60,000.

More than 22,000 riders visited the carousel in its last full season of operation, and many more are expected now that the newly heated facility will be open year-round, deputy director Kim Hinson says.

But even more people drop in to see what is not only an important Hampton landmark but also a bona fide piece of American cultural history.

"When I started in this business 35 years ago, there were still about 500 working carousels. Now there are less than 100 left," Finkelstein says.

"It's a real treasure."

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© 2008, Daily Press (Newport News, Va.).