A carriage is a wheeled vehicle for people, usually horse-drawn; litters (palanquins) and sedan chairs are excluded, since they are wheelless vehicles. The carriage is especially designed for private passenger use and for comfort or elegance, though some are also used to transport goods. It may be light, smart and fast or heavy, large and comfortable. Carriages normally have suspension using leaf springs, elliptical springs (in the 19th century) or leather strapping. A public passenger vehicle would not usually be called a carriage – terms for such include stagecoach, charabanc and omnibus. Working vehicles such as the (four-wheeled) wagon and (two-wheeled) cart share important parts of the history of the carriage, as is the fast (two-wheeled) chariot.
The word carriage (abbreviated carr or cge) is from Old Northern French cariage, to carry in a vehicle. The word car, then meaning a kind of two-wheeled cart for goods, also came from Old Northern French about the beginning of the 14th century; it was also used for railway carriages, and was extended to cover automobile around the end of the nineteenth century, when early models were called horseless carriages.
A carriage is sometimes called a team, as in "horse and team". A carriage with its horse is a rig. An elegant horse-drawn carriage with its retinue of servants is an equipage. A carriage together with the horses, harness and attendants is a turnout or setout. A procession of carriages is a cavalcade.
Types of horse-drawn carriages: Araba, Barouche, Berlin, Brake, Britzka, Brougham, Buggy, Cabriolet, Calash, Cape cart, Cariole, Carryall, Chaise, Chariot Biga Triga, Clarence, Coach, Coupe, Croydon, Curricle, Dogcart, Dos-a-dos, Drag (carriage), Droshky (Drozhki), Ekka, Fiacre, Fly, Four-in-hand, Gharry, Gig, Gladstone, Governess cart, Hackney, Hansom, Hearse, Herdic, Horse and buggy, Jaunting car, Landau, Limousine, Mail coach, One-horse carriage, One-horse shay, Park Drag, Phaeton, Post chaise, Randem, Ratha, Temple car, Road Coach, Rockaway, Sociable, Spider phaeton, Sprung cart, Stagecoach, Stanhope, Sulky, Surrey, Tarantass (Tarantas), Tonga / Tanga (Indian Horse Carriage), Telega, Tilbury, Trap (carriage), Troika, Un-sprung cart, Victoria, Village cart, Vis-a-vis, Voiturette, Volante, Wagonette, Whim, Whiskey
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Don Berkebile, in his exhaustive Carriage Terminology book, had this to say:
“CABRIOLET — (Derivation: French, cabriolet, through the Italian, capriolo, kid, from the Latin capreolus, diminutive of caper, goat.) A name originally applied to a two-wheel vehicle used in France and Italy during the late seventeenth century, so named because of the capering or goat-like motion given to the vehicle by its long, springing shafts. The body, resembling an exaggerated comma or nautilus shell, was a relic of the cut-down coach body, thus relating the Cabriolet to the coach family. The Cabriolet eventually borrowed an additional characteristic from the coach in the manner of suspension, being hung from whip springs and C-springs. Popular at first among men of fortune, the Cabriolet came into common use in Paris as a public hack during the late eighteenth century. Shortly thereafter, it was introduced into London where, early in the nineteenth century, it was again put into limited service as a public carriage, and thus was the ancestral form of the two-wheel public cabs.
“At about the same time, an English coach builder combined the two-wheel Cabriolet with the Perch-high Phaeton to produce a four-wheel vehicle known as the Cabriolet Phaeton. Later the vehicle came to the United States, where the word Phaeton was soon dropped from the name, leaving only the word Cabriolet, though the term now referred to a four-wheel vehicle.
“On the Continent, the four-wheel Cabriolet was lifted to the dignity of a royal equipage. It was then driven with postilions, which necessitated the removal of the driver’s seat, and at the same time were added an ornate leather dash in front and a rumble seat for the groom behind. The French named this carriage the Victoria, in honor of Queen Victoria of England, probably about mid-century. Later, without altering the vehicle, a skeleton boot [driver’s seat] supported by iron stays was added above and in front of the dash. Thus the social significance in the skeleton boot of the Victoria, as compared to the paneled boot of the Cabriolet, is obvious. It should be remembered, however, that the Victoria properly belongs to the Cabriolet group, the latter name being applicable to carriages solely because of the resemblance of their bodies to the body of the original two-wheel Cabriolet.
“In its final form the Cabriolet is a low, four-wheel, four-passenger (including driver) hooded vehicle without doors. Either one or two horses might be used, depending on the size of the carriage. The rear portion is made with a deep quarter, and the driver’s seat is on an elevated, paneled boot. Some carriage manufacturers applied the term Cabriolet if there was only a slight elevation to the driver’s seat, while they used the term panel-boot Victoria if there was a greater elevation of the driver’s seat. The top is generally over the back seat only, but some later types have extension tops that cover the front portion as well. The body usually is suspended on elliptic springs in front and platfrom springs in the rear, although in some instances elliptics were used in both front and rear.
“The terms Cabriolet, Cabriolet Phaeton, Cab Phaeton, Victoria, Duc, and Milord are often so loosely used as to be nearly synonymous.”
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Lithographer, publisher. Rudolph Ackermann, born in Saxony; to London 1787; 1792, set up in business as a coachmaker at 7 Little Russell Street, Covent Garden, having already published the first of many books of carriage designs; 1796, moved to 96 Strand where he ran a drawing school for ten years, publishing drawing books; 1797, to 101 Strand (known, from 1798, as "The Repository of Arts") where he sold old master paintings and artists' supplies as well as prints (see 1871,1209.5668 for an advertisement). 220 Strand given as his address in a print published 1803. "The Microcosm of London" (1808-10) and the monthly "Repository of Arts" (1809-29) established his reputation for fine colour plate books. 1809 naturalised. 1816, began to publish lithographs. Always maintained links with Germany, and in the 1820s also opened outlets in Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Argentina, and Peru. 1832, handed over to his second son George (q.v.) and his younger brothers who traded as Ackermann & Co.at 106 The Strand until 1861 (although the brothers' partnership dissolved in 1855); the print business which Ackermann had established for his eldest son Rudolph at 191 Regent Street (later in Bond Street) survived as Arthur Ackermann & Son. In the 1930s it opened branches in America, eg at 408 South Michigan Avenue Chicago. In 1991 the firm closed, and re-opened again in 1992 as Arthur Ackermann and Peter Johnson Ltd.
