Read Ebook: The carriages at Shelburne Museum by Carlisle Lilian Baker

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 361 lines and 25292 words, and 8 pages

Three-seat Surrey 40

Extension-top Surrey 41

Depot Wagon 42

Coup? 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 Cal?che 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

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 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.

SPIDER PHAETON

In 1888, G. N. Hooper 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.

CUT-UNDER PHAETON

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 Phaeton 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 . Sometimes it might also have been horsed with a pair.

The Peters' ladies' phaeton depicted in the old photograph above is turned out ? 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 is harnessed in the simpler ? 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

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 :

Type of Phaeton Price Weight in Pounds Basket 0 350 Basket 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.

MINIATURE PHAETON

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 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.

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet