This is a head from a game manufactured by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company named Charlie's Hat. Several different heads were mounted in the round on wooden rods which rotated and moved up and down. Each head had a hat on it and the object was to knock the hat off the head and you win the hat. The heads were carved differently and also painted individually. Some that we have seen are even in "park paint" which means they were repainted by park employees when the original paint wore off. The heads are life size, so the size of a normal head. The heads are actually hand carved from blocks of wood glued together in the same manner that most carousel animals were carved. The Philadelphia Toboggan Company was one of the premier carousel manufactures in America.
The game is from the later part of the 1800's but there is not a whole lot of information on the history of the game and how many were produced and sold. This particular head came from the Holtz family of Olcott, NY. They owned an amusement park in Olcott, NY. which was a successful vacation spot along Lake Ontario in the late 1800's and early 1900's.
This particular bald head is painted black with red features including a long nose.
The head itself is: 10" from tip of the nose to the back of the head and 14" high from the cut off of the neck to the top of the head and 6" wide. Overall the head on the stand is 17" tall.
Pictured also is the collection of Charlie's Hat heads from the Holtz family.
