Toy Rocking Horses made by Carriage Maker Ernst Kirsch

According to the article posted on Dr. Edmund Weinberg, a collector of rocking horses below: "Some of Dr. Weinberg's horses are rare survivors, while others are more plentiful. For example, he knows of two other horses resembling his abstract, contemporary-looking bentwood model, but his is the only one with the seat intact. One version is at the Strong Museum in Rochester, N.Y., and the other is from the legendary toy collection of the late Bernard M. "Barney" Barenholtz, was sold at Sotheby's in January 1990 for $10,450.

Dr. Weinberg had bought his bentwood horse for about $3,000 several years ago on Long Island, N.Y., at an auction of the estate of Joan Whitney Payson, who owned the New York Mets. Like the one at the Strong Museum, it has a cloth cape at the neck hiding a clumsy joint. When Dr. Weinberg got the horse home, he discovered that it was stamped faintly on its neck with the name of Amesbury, Mass., carriage maker Ernst Kirsch and the date 1871.

Claim. — The hommer herein described, made from a single piece of metal, shaped and folded as set forth.121,945.—Rocking-Horse.—Ernst Kirsch, South Amesbury, Mass. A rocking-horse made of the bent stock, constructed, connected, and relatively arranged, substantially as described. Patent Issued 1872 Commissioner of Patents Annual Report By United States. Patent Office

I found Ernst Kirsch listed as a carriage maker in 1871 city directory Cambridge, MA  a death of 1901 in Massachusetts birth 1820. "Massachusetts Deaths and Burials, 1795-1910," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FHLN-K28 : 10 December 2014), Ernst Kirsch, 10 Jun 1901; citing , reference 293; FHL microfilm 2,109,176.