An Assemblage of 19th Century Horses and Carriages

I bought this delightful book a few weeks ago from a second-hand bookseller. Looking on Amazon, I probably could have got it much cheaper, but without seeing the pictures, I probably wouldn’t have bought it at all, so.

The sketches were made in 1873, by William Francis Freelove, who was a solicitor’s clerk, not a professional artist. But they are really lovely and he captured a huge range of vehicles from royal state coaches to the penny van, from a wedding carriage to a coal waggon. In the book, the sketches are categorised as pleasure vehicles, business vehicles, special vehicles and ‘nondescript’, which includes a bathing machine and a gypsy caravan. The text of the book has been added for its first publication in 1971, but is very helpful in explaining when and how the vehicles were used. Regency writers beware – the brougham, for example, was not introduced until 1838.

Here are just a few of his pictures:

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