Part 1

THE CARRIAGES

_at_ Shelburne Museum

_By_ LILIAN BAKER CARLISLE

_Museum Pamphlet Series, Number 1_

PUBLISHED BY THE SHELBURNE MUSEUM SHELBURNE · VERMONT

COPYRIGHT 1956

BY THE SHELBURNE MUSEUM, INC. SHELBURNE, VERMONT

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY THE LANE PRESS, BURLINGTON, VERMONT

_Can You Remember_ ...

In the 1900 United States census, there were listed 4,571 vehicle-constructing concerns. They employed 126,000 men and paid yearly wages to the amount of $70,000,000. Fifty years later one or two specialists still manufacture a limited variety of vehicles, but during our lifetime the carriage trade has vanished.

Persons now living rarely conceive of themselves as a part of history and seldom make provisions for the perpetuation of examples and data of their era. Although most of the carriages that once crowded the roads have disappeared, some fine examples still exist in America on large estates in hay-filled barns and dusty carriage houses, and it is to be hoped that these few remaining vehicles will be rescued and placed in museums where they will be preserved for the generations that come after us as living mementoes of our past. Even the printed material, old carriage maker’s catalogues, plans, illustrated magazines, scrapbooks, wall charts, technical and account books--once present in every carriage maker’s shop, has all but disappeared. This material is of great value to the researcher, librarian and curator at museums which have made provisions for its preservation. Persons owning any of these documents would be performing an act of public service in offering this material to museums, libraries or historical societies so that it too can be kept intact.

The collection of vehicles at the Shelburne Museum contains the sleighs and carriages, light and heavy, formerly owned by the late Dr. and Mrs. W. Seward Webb; also those given by Mrs. Richard V. N. Gambrill in memory of her husband; gifts of single carriages or sleighs from interested donors; and purchases made to secure representative vehicles. Illustrated in this pamphlet, which is the first of the Shelburne Museum series, are examples of many of the carriage types on display. A complete listing of the other carriages will be found on page 65. A later publication will depict and describe the farm and commercial wagons, as well as the fine collection of sleighs.

“Setting up” a fine carriage in the last century was quite different from purchasing a fine automobile today. Considerable knowledge was required as to style of harness, liveries, purpose, details and customs. The description of one of the most costly late 19th century stables here in the United States reads like a tale from the Arabian nights. The town coach barn of this owner contained a coach, a brougham, a hansom, a runabout and an opera wagon, but the carriage house at his country estate was awe-inspiring. It sheltered dozens of vehicles of every sort, and a corps of stablemen was employed to maintain these vehicles in first class condition. In 1905 this collection was broken up and auctioned off to the hundreds who came and went during the days of the sale. Newspaper accounts of the day said that they were bewildered by the display of the victorias, the park drags, the skeleton breaks, the two hundred sets of harness, the magnificent monogrammed blankets for the horses and all the rest of the accoutrements.

The “carriage parade” was a daily event in every major American city and New York’s vehicles thronged over the ten miles of fine carriage roads in and around Central Park. Every afternoon between the hours of four and five, fashionable society of New York “took the air.” East Drive from the Mall south to Fifth Avenue and 59th Street was lined with spectators, and in their polished carriages, attended by their immaculate servants, the élite drove back and forth, passing and re-passing each other. It is said that the first time they met each other, they bowed ceremoniously, the second time they smiled, and the third time they looked away. When warm weather came, society moved out of the city en masse, and their carriages went along too. The summer carriage parade at Newport, Rhode Island was reputed to be even finer and more glittering than the New York “promenade on wheels.”

In the United States, it was not only the people of wealth and fashion who owned carriages, and herein lies one of the great differences in our attitude and that of the countries abroad. We developed the rockaway, surrey, buggy and buckboard; vehicles that could be produced inexpensively; vehicles that were light and practical with a stripped-down functional look, yet for all their air of fragility, possessed of great strength. We fashioned them so that a servant was not required either to drive them or to maintain them; we built them in such numbers and so well that the treatise on _Coachbuilding_ published in London in 1881 by J. W. Burgess noted:

“The carriages of America are so different from our own and from those of Europe that they require special attention. It is quite possible that in the future their style may greatly influence carriages in all parts. The first noticeable trait in them is lightness.... Americans have adopted some of the shapes of Europe and the European mode on constructing the under-carriages, retaining their own method of making the pole and splinters, as giving greater freedom to the horses.

“The cheapness (of their vehicles) is attained by making large numbers to the same pattern, by the use of (machinery) and by the educated dexterity of the American workman, always ready to adopt any improvement.”

Horse-drawn vehicles have played a vital part in the lives of civilized peoples, and that period cannot pass for long without demanding the attention of research scholars whose basic interest is to record activities of the past for the benefit of the future.

Mr. and Mrs. J. Watson Webb, founders of the Shelburne Museum, have assembled this collection of vehicles and placed it on display in the hopes that it will play a part toward preserving for posterity the examples of the coachbuilder’s art during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

LILIAN BAKER CARLISLE

Shelburne, Vermont. April 1, 1956

_Table of Contents_

PAGE

INTRODUCTION iii

CARRIAGES FOR AN OWNER’S DRIVING

Mail Phaeton 1

Spider Phaeton 2

Cut-under Phaeton 3

George IV Phaeton 4

Basket Phaeton 6

Miniature Phaeton 7

Curricle 8

Chaise 9

Doctor’s Gig 10

Dog Cart 11

Tandem Cart 12

“Going-to-Cover” Cart 14

Shooting Cart 15

NON-SPORTING CARRIAGES

Brougham 16

Landau 18

Panel-boot Victoria 19

Skeleton-boot Victoria 20

Vis-à-Vis 22

Private Omnibus 23

Calèche 24

Berlin 26

Carroll Coach 28

Formal Coach 29

Irish Jaunting Car 30

Hansom Cab 31

COACHING AND OTHER FOUR-IN-HAND VEHICLES

Road Coach “Liberty” 32

Park Drag 34

Road Coach “Defiance” 36

Skeleton Break 37

Body Break with Perch 38

CARRIAGES OF AMERICAN ORIGIN

Three-seat Surrey 40

Extension-top Surrey 41

Depot Wagon 42

Coupé Rockaway 43

Six-passenger Rockaway 44

Buckboard Phaeton 45

Pony Buckboard 46

Double Buckboard 48

Triple Buckboard 49

UNCLASSIFIED VEHICLES

Racing Sulky 50

Skeleton Wagon 51

Tub Cart 52

Kentucky Breaking Cart 54

Concord Wagon 55

Pleasure Wagon 56

Canadian Calèche 57

Mountain Wagon 58

Barge 59

Schroon Lake Concord Coach 60

Concord Mud Wagon 62

Highland & Alpine House Concord Coach 63

BIBLIOGRAPHY 64

CATALOG 65

HORSESHOE BARN

This barn was the first structure erected on the Shelburne Museum grounds. Copied from a barn located in the northern part of Vermont, it was built of timbers from eleven different old Vermont barns and two grist mills. It now houses the collection of carriages and is the only building on the grounds that is not a preservation.

Each of the other twenty-four structures located on the twenty-five acres has been chosen for its individual beauty or interest. Although the buildings have been restored architecturally, they now serve as the background for the lifetime collections of the founders and it is only in the five homes that contemporary household furnishings have been displayed.

Shelburne Museum is essentially a “collection of collections” and is one of the newest of the outdoor country museums. It was founded in 1947 by Mr. and Mrs. J. Watson Webb, and has been chartered by the State of Vermont as a non-profit educational institution.

Located on Route 7, just seven miles south of Burlington, Vermont, the Shelburne Museum is open each year from May 15th to October 15th.

CARRIAGES FOR AN OWNER’S DRIVING

MAIL PHAETON

_Dark green; cane work at back of seat. Trimmed in eggshell broadcloth._

Styles in carriages, like women’s fashions, changed continuously. Speaking of the mail phaeton, a massive, masculine pair-horse carriage, the Duke of Beaufort in 1899 said: “They are much in use by noblemen and gentlemen and frequently employed by bachelors for long posting journeys in England as well as the Continent. They have almost reached perfection in the hands of the builder, Peters.”

Just fourteen years later, Francis M. Ware wrote: “In phaetons, the cumbrous and lumbering mail phaeton is as extinct as the dodo.”

The mail phaeton took its name from the mail coach and was characterized by its wooden perch (the pole running from the rear to the front axle) and mail coach springing. In England, these vehicles were used to send out mail and parcels to the nearest point where the royal mail coach passed.

_Gift of the Webb family in memory of Dr. and Mrs. W. Seward Webb_

SPIDER PHAETON

_Black with red; canework at back of seat. Trimmed in blue broadcloth._

In 1888, G. N. Hooper (feature writer for _Driving_ magazine) wrote: “For some years the young men of fashion have driven a small Stanhope phaeton. They are now giving place to spider phaetons, a sort of Tilbury body on four wheels, with a neat little seat for the groom behind, supported on branched irons; most of them have a folding head over the front body.

“Those first made had a trembling and vibrating motion; but with more solid construction ... they have become not only comfortable, but with more refined designs and construction, more stylish in appearance. They carry a lady and gentleman on the front seat comfortably, and the hind seat is made of such size as to carry only one person, and the groom runs no chance of having his dignity hurt by his master or one of his friends having to sit beside him.”

This spider phaeton was built in Paris, France by Muhlbacher.

_Gift of Mrs. Gambrill in memory of her husband, Mr. Richard V. N. Gambrill_

CUT-UNDER PHAETON

_Body painted dark green. Trimmed in tan whipcord._

A wide variety of carriages are known as phaetons, but usually the name is given to an open vehicle with four wheels which is intended for personal driving by the owner.

The name phaeton comes to us from classical mythology. Helios, the sun god, had a son called Phaet(h)on who in attempting to drive the sun chariot through the sky lost control of the horses and lest he burn up the earth, was consequently struck down by a thunderbolt of Zeus.

The cut-under construction of this phaeton gave clearance to the wheels when the vehicle turned in a small radius, or where sharp turns into driveways or alleys were required. The skeleton rumble seat in the rear was for the groom and the carriage would have been turned out with a single horse of about fifteen hands, or a cob (a small plump horse). Sometimes it might also have been horsed with a pair.

GEORGE IV PHAETON

_Green body with cane work, green gear. Trimmed in tan serge._

Although there were other phaetons suitable for ladies’ driving, according to Mr. Underhill, only the Peter’s ladies’ phaeton and the George IV phaeton were considered adequate for park driving. Their graceful outline demanded the smartest possible turning out, but no vehicle was more accommodating in displaying the charming picture of a beautiful well-dressed woman driving a brilliant well-mannered and nicely rounded pair of matched horses, attended by a single groom in immaculate livery.

However, Francis Underhill in his book _Driving for Pleasure_ warned “It may be well to state in connection with the George IV phaeton that they are very expensive carriages, and there being comparatively few persons owning stables which would admit of their use, they will be found difficult to dispose of except at a very great sacrifice.”

This George IV phaeton belonged to Mrs. W. Seward Webb and was built for her about 1882 by Brewster and Company of New York.

_Gift of the Webb family in memory of Dr. and Mrs. W. Seward Webb_

The Peters’ ladies’ phaeton depicted in the old photograph above is turned out à la grande daumont. This equipage took its name from the Duc d’Aumont, a French leader of fashion both before and after the French Revolution who introduced this style during the Restoration. In this country it was presented to formal society at Newport, Rhode Island by Mrs. August Belmont, wife of the Rothschild banker and mother of Newport’s noted brothers, O. H. P. and Perry Belmont.

The lady’s driving phaeton (below) is harnessed in the simpler à la demi daumont. The two carriages here illustrated are not in the museum collection, but depict the alternate method of harnessing when the postillion rides the near horse, or if four, the near leader and wheeler.

BASKET PHAETON

_Black with basket weave seat. Trimmed in blue broadcloth._

The pony basket phaeton was deservedly popular--especially with women--as it required little skill to keep the body in order, was light in weight and of small initial cost.

Prices and weights for the best make phaetons showed a wide variety, depending upon which type was purchased. The schedule below was published by James A. Garland about 1900 (_The Private Stable_):

Type of Phaeton Price Weight in Pounds Basket (single) $400 350 Basket (pair-horse) 750 700 Ladies’ 1150 800 Mail 1450 1200 Spider 1150 800

Light and airy in appearance, this basket phaeton was used by its owner as a summertime vehicle. It was built by the Hume Carriage Company of Amesbury, Massachusetts.

_Gift of Mr. Arthur Brown, Tilton, New Hampshire._

MINIATURE PHAETON

_Canework body painted black; wheels black with red striping. Trimmed in black leather._

This little phaeton was made especially in a miniature size for Tom Thumb of Bridgeport, Connecticut. P. T. Barnum first heard of the perfectly-formed twenty-four inch sixteen pound child in 1842. He secured his services for $3 per week and exhibited him at his New York Museum. The child was exceptionally bright and Barnum undertook his education, hiring a tutor and a French professor for him. Tom Thumb with his parents, Barnum and the complete entourage sailed in 1844 for Europe and the first of a number of prosperous tours. He became the favorite of Continental royalty, as well as a pet at Buckingham Palace.

In 1862 Barnum contracted for the services of the perfectly formed dwarf girl, Lavinia Warren, of Massachusetts, and the love marriage of these two tiny people captured the romantic attention of every American. Tom Thumb died when he was 45 years old--still tiny in height, but by then a portly 70 pounds in weight.

CURRICLE

_Body painted dark green; gear green. Trimmed in tan broadcloth._

James W. Burgess in 1881 in his treatise on _Coach Building_ pointed out that in the last years of the 17th and in the early years of the 18th century “a vehicle much in fashion was the curricle, which had been in use for some time in Italy where it was suspended from leather braces. Springs were added by the French ... the English altered the shape, giving the back a graceful ogee curve, improved the hood and added a spring bar across the horses’ backs. It was a vehicle of easy draught, and could be driven at great speed. Unfortunately it was rather dangerous if the horses shied or stumbled, and this tended to reduce the demand for it, although Charles Dickens used one as soon as he could afford it, and Count D’Orsay had one made as late as 1836.”

This curricle, an extremely rare type of carriage, was built by Brewster and Company of New York just before the turn of the 20th century.

CHAISE

_Body painted black. Trimming: black leather top and cushions (restored in 1953)._

The chaise has been defined as a two-wheeled carriage for two persons with a calash (folding) top and the body hung on leather straps or thorough-braces.

This chaise was purchased from the descendants of Gen. John Stark of Dunbarton, New Hampshire where the family homestead is located. Tradition has it that Gen. Stark met the Marquis de Lafayette in Concord, New Hampshire and drove him to the Stark home in this chaise where Lafayette visited with Stark during his 1784 visit to America.

John Stark was one of the most colorful heroes of the Revolutionary War and a special hero of Vermont, for it was at the Battle of Bennington that Stark overwhelmingly defeated the British forces on August 16, 1777. “Bennington Battle Day” is Still celebrated every year in Vermont, and is a state holiday.

DOCTOR’S GIG

_Body painted black. Trimmed in black leather._

The gig was an exceedingly light vehicle and in reality was only a chair fixed on shafts. Well adapted for traveling purposes, it was a favorite of doctors and businessmen.

Of particular note is the method of springing used in this gig. Two sloping members are bolted through the shafts to which are attached the suspension leather braces. This ingenious form of suspension is typically American and one which substituted for the heavier and costlier methods of springing.

This gig belonged to Dr. Zacheus Bass of Middlebury, Vermont, who practiced in Addison County from 1815 to 1881. He accompanied Vermont troops to Plattsburgh, and during 1814 assisted in caring for the wounded on Commodore MacDonough’s ship.

_On loan from the Sheldon Museum, Middlebury, Vermont_

DOG CART

_Olive green, picked out with yellow. Trimming: tan tweed._

The dog cart, when setters and pointers were used for pheasant and partridge shooting, was a useful vehicle to transport the dogs to distant shoots, but outlived its usefulness for this originally conceived purpose. Over the years it changed its shape, with the high wheels and lofty driver’s seat giving way to a low, rakish line. The profile of the body varied also, sometimes sloping side lines were the fashion; other years the upright line was in favor.

In 1883 a lever permitting the whole body of the vehicle to be moved backwards or forwards was patented. This simple device, located directly below the driver’s seat, allowed the driver to change the center of gravity of his dog cart, depending upon whether two or three persons were riding as passengers, thereby easing the load on the pony or cob drawing the cart.

This dog cart was built by Fred F. French, carriage maker of Boston, Massachusetts.

_Gift of Mr. Arthur Brown, Tilton, New Hampshire._

TANDEM CART

_Black body, yellow gear striped with black. Trimmed in tan cord._

Tandem driving (two horses, one behind the other) originated with sportsmen in hunting countries who took their hunter to cover in harness as the leader of two horses. He was expected to simply jog along comfortably with the wheeler, or second horse, pulling the cart. This custom of driving became popular and more or less of a sport in itself.

Some authorities depreciated tandem driving, but Frederic Ashenden who wrote the notes on tandem and four-in-hand driving for _The Private Stable_ differed. He pointed out that it had always been his custom to give a tandem pupil half a dozen lessons in four-in-hand driving first before attempting tandem, for he felt the reins were more easily handled with four. Francis W. Ware, author of _Driving_ agreed, for as he said, a four would keep each other straight, but any bungling with the reins would surely be communicated to the tandem team and upset their work.

_Gift of the Webb family in memory of Dr. and Mrs. Seward Webb_

TANDEM DRIVING

“Let anyone while he is young and has strong and steady nerves, a quick eye and patience to learn his business thoroughly, try it, and perhaps he will not repent. Let him begin by learning the uses, places and combination of the harness to the last buckle. Then if he can find a good professor, let him sit beside him, watch, listen and learn.... Then he may go far and certainly might fare worse.” Major-General Sir C. Teesdale.

These two photos showing Mr. J. Watson Webb driving the homemade tandem practice cart were taken about 1903 in Shelburne, Vermont. The two horses are Mary (leader) and Auburn Maid (wheeler).

“GOING-TO-COVER” CART

_Black and white with red gear. Trimmed in eggshell corduroy._