W. Dentzel II; Carved Figures for Carousels

William H. Dentzel II, who carried on a carousel tradition established by his great-grandfather in Germany more than 150 years ago, has died of cancer at his Santa Barbara home, it was reported Tuesday.

A spokesman for Welch-Ryce-Haider Funeral Chapels said that Dentzel, an attorney by training who used carving skills learned from his forebears mostly as an avocation rather than a profession, was 70 when he died Saturday.

The Dentzel carousel dynasty--which has produced classic wooden animals considered pre-eminent in their field--began in the 1830s with Michael Dentzel, a German wheelwright. After watching his sons play on the spokes of a giant wheel he had made, he first added benches for them to sit on and then began carving stationary wooden horses.

One of those sons, Gustav, William Dentzel’s grandfather, brought the craft to America, where he became a pioneer in the embryonic field, inventing striking figure designs and supervising the lavish mechanical menageries that were to bring further fame to the Dentzel clan.

The Dentzels became known for the realism of their animals as opposed to the bejeweled, highly ornate carousel figures of others.

Unlike his grandfather and father, who was once mayor of Beverly Hills, William H. Dentzel II concentrated on the manufacture of child-size merry-go-grounds, no larger than 9 1/2 feet across.

His horses, dogs, cats, lions, ostriches and bears, which he carved in a basement workshop in the evenings after working at his law practice, have been donated to the Santa Barbara Zoo, Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles, the Ronald McDonald House in San Diego, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, the Scottish Rite Hospital for Crippled Children in Dallas, the Los Angeles Museum of Science and Industry and more.

Each figure, between two and three feet tall, took him more than a month to craft from base wood or imported Indonesian woods. Each consists of 20 to 30 pieces assembled with pegging and glue much as his ancestors had done.

“They’re the cradle of the amusement park,” he said of carousels in a 1988 interview with The Times. “They tantalize the eye and they are a treat to the ear. But even better they’re fun to ride.”

Dentzel, who in 1973 helped found the National Carousel Assn., a group devoted to the preservation of carousels across the country, is survived by his wife, Marion, and four children, all of whom helped him continue the family legacy.