For the first time, this unique équipage manual describes the 50 most well-known carriage manufacturers, their models, their history, the independence of the different types of design from each other and the development in America and Europe in words and pictures.
Volume I focuses on the cultural history of the équipages. It focuses on the surroundings of the carriages including the owners, the passengers, the drivers and the horses, i.e. the équipage as a whole. The sources it uses are excellent-quality reproductions of sample sheets, illustrations and photographs from the 19th and early 20th centuries. It also includes an analysis of the rapid economic development of the time and a synopsis of the 50 most well-known carriage factories in Europe.
Volume II gives a systematic presentation of the wide range of principal carriage models widespread in Europe in the 19th century. 63 common luxury carriages are traced through time. They give a representative cross-section of the impressive variety of historical carriage forms, from heavy carriages of state to light, sporty two-wheelers.
The second volume is designed as a manual allowing the reader to determine designation and type of the different models and date them.
This work is based on an evaluation of the former leading carriage-building periodicals of the English-, French- and German-speaking regions. It also includes facsimiles of albums published by the main carriage factories in Europe as well as a large number of photographs from hitherto largely unpublished private collections of historical carriages. All this makes the two volumes with their abundance of illustrations an important standard work on the carriage fashions of the 19th century which laid the foundation for the age of the automobile.
