Daniel Carl Muller and Alfred Muller
Carousel master-carvers, (1890-1928) for Dentzel, PTC and others.
D.C. Muller Brothers carousel builders, (1903-1914)
Returned to carve for PTC, Dentzel and others…
D. C. Muller – With formal training at at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Daniel Muller’s realism, drama, (sometimes contained, sometimes not – just like a real horse), and his incredible attention to fine details and proportions led to some of the finest and most sought after carousel horses ever carved.
Daniel and Alfred Muller –
When their father, John Heinrich Muller, a carver for, and friend of, Gustav Dentzel, died, his teen sons Daniel and Alfred were left behind. The boys would be treated as family by Dentzel. Young Daniel and Alfred would also carve for Dentzel, with Daniel emerging as the much more inspired artist, he gathered formal training at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
Muller’s realism , drama, sometimes contained, sometimes not, (just like a real horse) and his incredible attention to details and proportions led to some of the finest and most sought after carousel horses ever carved. As well, some of finest horses from Dentzel, PTC and other factories are attributed to Muller or Muller influence.
The young Muller brothers would get antsy, and some say, alienate Gustav as they chose to freelance their carving talents to companies other than Dentzel around 1900, Then, in 1903, they would form their own D. C. Muller Brothers carousel manufacturing company. By 1910 the Muller Brothers build a dozen fine carousels, but they could not seem to compete with the bigger, more established, Dentzel, Looff, PTC and Herschell-Spillman, who could all produce carousels faster and much more efficiently. Some suggest the Mullers spent too much time on the fine figures.
The Muller shop would close in 1914. Daniel would go on to carve for PTC and others, until he rejoined Gustav’s son William Dentzel Co. in 1918. Muller would help the next generation Dentzel create a few more of the finest carousels ever made, until the oncoming Great Depression would put a stop to the “Golden Age” of American carousel manufacturing. The Dentzel shop officially closed in 1928, with the last carousel to leave the shop nothing less than a fantastic, all horse, Detzel/Muller. The carousel went to that carousel went to Rock Springs, WV.
See other Muller carousel galleries here. and Marianne Stevens’ article on the Pen Mar Muller carousel.
A sample of fine early 1900 carousel horse (mostly) carvings all attributed to the talented Daniel Carl Muller. Muller’s figures are understandably some of the most sought after of all carousel figures.
