A children's carriage with a vis-à-vis seat for two and a tiller for steering.
The design of Children’s Carriages was very often based on the full sized version within the family carriage collection. This example is loosely based on a Landau or a Vis-à-vis with two seats facing each other and a footwell. At the back is an unusual feature of a sword case. The body is simply constructed with plain panel sides. There are no doors, it is likely that very small children rode in this carriage and they would have been lifted into it.
The body is rather crudely bolted to the fore carriage via a piece of wood that has a rounded end and chamfered edges. A narrow draw bar sits on top of the futchells to which the tiller is fixed. The tiller has a shaped wooden handle which shows many hours of being used. Across the entire fore carriage is what was once some rather fine carving, scroll ends and chamfered edges. A think black paint covers the carriage, hiding its fine details.
The carriage is sprung on elliptic springs at the front and back. The off side rear spring is missing. At the front are 8 spoke, iron tyred wheels with 10 spoke wheels at the back with common axles.
There are glimmers of a once fine little carriage here. It has over the years been stripped of any upholstery and covered in a really thick substance like gesso and then painted black.
There are no inscriptions on this carriage.
The carriage is missing its offside rear spring, otherwise all of the structural components are present. Covered in a thick black substance which has chipped off in numerous places revealing a nicely carved undercarriage. The upholstered seats are missing.