I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t intrigued by carousels. We visited a number of lovely ones in my childhood, and I’ve had the good fortune to spend memorable times with some of the more famous ones from Paris to Brooklyn. I even made the cover of The New York Times Style Section once while riding the Prospect Park Carousel in a ball gown. (True story.)

It’s long been a dream of mine to own one, but I know it’ll never happen. Even if I do scrape together the cash and the nerve, I’ll still never have the room. But I am nonetheless drawn to them. Somewhere along the way, perhaps because I knew I’d never have enough space to do one justice, I turned my attention to rocking horses. While the dimensions were better, rocking horses are still impractical, so I’ve resisted buying one (many) of those over the years, too.

Enter Riesing’s Rockers. These are hand-crafted, smallish-scale wooden animals in the style of carousel and rocking horses, but with their own style, too. They’re a little more modern, but without sacrificing warmth or detail. They aren’t meant to be sat upon (except by the most adventurous toddler), but they still manage to have great movement to them. I find them utterly charming. Great. One more beautiful thing I need to resist.