Marcus Charles Illions (1871–1949) was a master carver of wooden

carousel A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round (List of sovereign states, international), roundabout (British English), or hurdy-gurdy (an old term in Australian English, in South Australia, SA) is a type of amusement ...

horses and other figures at

Coney Island Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, Manhattan Beach to its east, L ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in the early 20th century. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' referred to him as "the

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...

of carousel carvers". Illions was born in 1870 or 1871 in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

, becoming a builder of circus wagons before emigrating to England, where he carved carousel horses. An alternative account in an obituary states that he was actually born in England. He came to America in 1888 where he carved for

Charles I. D. Looff Charles I. D. Looff was a German master carver and builder of hand-carved carousels and amusement rides, who immigrated to the United States of America in 1870. Looff built the first carousel at Coney Island in 1876. During his lifetime, he bui ...

and

William F. Mangels William F. Mangels (1866–1958) was an amusement manufacturer and inventor. He worked at Coney Island and was a major player in the development of American amusement parks at the start of the 20th century. In addition to manufacturing carousels an ...

in Coney Island before starting his own company, M. C. Illions and Sons Carousell Works, in 1909. His five children were all active in the business from very early ages, in roles that included carver and commercial artist. At one time in the early 1900s, ten carousels carved by Illions operated in Coney Island. Illions was an exponent of what has become known as the Coney Island style of carousel figure carving, which "is characterized by flamboyant horses, bedecked with jewels and gold and silver leaf". By 1909, Illions' company produced "a new line of horses with explosive, flying manes and powerful, straining bodies, decked out with latticework harnesses and other virtuoso feats of carving". A machine known as Feltman's Carousel is considered by one source to have been Illions' best work. Though no longer intact, 24 of its horses were incorporated into the

Flushing Meadows Carousel The Flushing Meadows Carousel is a carousel located in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in the New York City borough of Queens. It contains four rows of figures, including 64 jumping horses, 7 standing horses, 1 menagerie animal (a lion), and 2 char ...

in 1964 and are still in use today. The

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

of the 1930s decreased demand for amusement products and Illions experienced financial problems. He died broke in 1949. His legacy includes extant carousels across the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

which are listed here: During the restoration of the

B&B Carousell The B&B Carousell is a historic carousel at Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York City. It was built by Coney Island-based manufacturer William F. Mangels 1906–1909, with wooden horses carved by Marcus Illions. The carousel has been relocated ...

for its 2013 reopening on the Coney Island Boardwalk, it was discovered that one of the horses is in fact by Marcus Illions. All of the other horses were executed in the early 1920s by another well-known Coney Island carver,

Charles Carmel Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was "f ...

. The Illions horse was one of a set of four executed in 1909 to commemorate the centennial of the birth of

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

, and features colorful rhinestones and a relief of Lincoln's profile. This is the only one of the set that can be ridden by the public today, as the other three are all in private collections. The most recent prior owner of the B&B had used the Illions horse to replace one of the Carmel horses that an earlier owner had removed from the carousel.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Illions, Marcus Amusement ride manufacturers Carousel designers People from Coney Island Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United Kingdom 1871 births 1949 deaths British emigrants to the United States