Coach Making. An important archive collection of 83 carriage designs, early to mid 19th c, including broughams, cabriolets, chariots, curricles, landaus, phaetons, gigs, etc:
- Royalty. English School, early 19th c - Barker & Co Carriage Design for Prince Frederick, Duke of York & Albany (second son of George III; 1763-1827) and his wife Princess Frederica Charlotte of Prussia (1767-1820), the coach door emblazoned with their matrimonial arms and royal insignia, indistinctly monogrammed and addressed, further inscribed Barker & Co and date about 1820 in two separate scripts, watercolour, pen-and-ink, and pencil, heightened in gum arabic, 19.1 x 34.3cm;
- Royalty. William Legg Jun:r (fl. 1830-37) - Britzka Design for William IV, signed, titled and addressed Barker & Co., Chandos Street, gum arabic and pen-and-ink, 21.5 x 33cm;
- F. Wickstead, mid-19th c - Design for a Nobleman's State Coach, with full armorial achievement and monogram crested by a coronet, monogrammed and dated 1863, Peters of London ticket, watercolour, gum arabic and pen-and-ink, 30.5 x 47cm;
- Royalty? Another design of the same period, unattributed, the coach with a regnal crown, arms and cypher, with folding coach lamp flap, Peters of London ticket, watercolour, gum arabic and pen-and-ink, upper-left and upper-right Royal Warrant tickets of Queen Victoria and Edward, Prince of Wales, 30 x 48cm;
- Nine polychrome designs with moving parts/flaps, by various hands, including six with Peters of London tickets, one inscribed Barker & Co., one mounted double-sided, another with a standard watercolour design to verso, the largest 25.4 x 36.4cm;
- Ten monochrome designs with folding parts/flaps, two executed by J.W. Peters and the remaining eight attributed to Samuel Hobson, including the vis-à-vis of the Earl of Clonmell, predominantly in pencil, the largest 21.1 x 33.1cm;
- A.S. Hobson, early-mid 19th c - Design for a Peer of the Hamilton Family, watercolour, pen-and-ink, and heightened in gum arabic, signed and inscribed Long Acre, 18.5 x 31cm, another design for an aristocrat conforming; with four further designs by the same, each with armorial doors or panels, signed, executed in wash en grisaille, one sheet with an additional unattributed design to verso, mixed sizes;
- Samuel Hobson, early-mid 19th c - Six polychrome designs, each with either a coat of arms, cresting, or bearing a coronet, signed, two dated 1832 & 1833, some addressed Long Acre, predominantly gum arabic and wash, mixed sizes, mostly 18 x 30cm; eight monochrome designs, including the Marquess and Marchioness of Londonderry's vis-à-vis, predominantly wash en grisaille and pen-and-ink, one pen-and-ink solely, three in pencil only, mixed sizes;
- J.W. Peters, second-quarter to mid 19th c - Nine polychrome designs, one mounted on to verso of another leaf, signed, mixed media and sizes; a monochrome wash design, signed and dated 1853, Peters of London ticket, 15.2 x 26.5cm;
- Twenty further designs of the same format, most with armorial bearings, one monogrammed C.H. only, otherwise unattributed, one executed entirely in pencil, otherwise conforming media and sizes;
- Six monochrome designs, one of which includes a horse and one mounted to verso of leaf, wash en grisaille and pen-and-ink, mixed sizes;
- Four pencil sketches/designs, mixed sizes;
- A later 19th c photograph of an earlier portrait sketch of Samuel Hobson, 27 x 19.2cm, with a group of detached former folding parts.
'The famous coachbuilder Samuel Hobson began his pioneering labours in about the year 1820, and he is said "to have improved and remodelled every sort of carriage which came under his notice, especially as regards the artistic construction'. In particular he reduced the height of the wheels, lengthened the coach body and hung it lower, substituting a double step to the door instead of a three-step ladder. Hobson worked in the firm of Barker and Co. of Chandos Street, eventually becoming a partner. In about 1815 he started his own business in Long Acre, central London; several of the drawings herein give addresses 99 Long Acre and 121 Long Acre. Many of his methods were copied by principal members of the trade. The coachbuilding firm of John W. Peters (George Street, Portman Square) was also an important business; his mail phaetons were noted as long ago as 1836 for their steadiness on rough roads. The date-span of the album includes the Coronation year of 1838, a year which marks an important epoch in the annals of coach-building, the celebrations for Queen Victoria giving rise to an enormous number of carriage commissions." (Sir Walter Gilbey, Modern Carriages, Vinton & Co., 1905, pp.2-3)
More Information
As a lot in mixed, but good condition; fresh and bold colouring where present. Some designs with contemporary mounts, being leaves previously taken from the firm's trade book or catalogue. Others mounted for framing in the late 20th/early 21st c. Some toned, others with handling and other marks. Please see online images.
