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Carved Work
Orton and Spoooner carved work circa 1900.
The first expression of fairground art came through the craft of woodcarving. This craft was well set from earlier periods, and it allowed personal taste and skill to persist due to the durability of the medium of wood. Earlier manifestations of the tradition came through ship masthead and decoration, and the popular art of carving wooden toys. It is suggested that most of the early fairground carvers came to the job through earlier work in these disciplines, boosted by the building booms in Victorian times. Famous carvers, including those early carvers on the fairgrounds, are not fully recorded, and the craft of carving was not seen as a form of esteemed art, rather the practice of gifted and dedicated locals. The pomposity that befits early fairground carved work arose through the Victorian fascination with design and display, leading up to the Great Exhibition of 1851.
See also our feature on Victorian Art and Society.
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