Coach (unnumbered)
ca. 1870
Medium
Pen and black ink
Dimensions
5 3/4 x 8 3/4 in. (14.6 x 22.2 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of William Brewster, 1923
Accession Number
23.112.1497
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate pen-and-ink drawing, created around 1870 by Brewster & Co. in collaboration with Channing Britton, captures the elegant form of a horse-drawn coach. Measuring just 5¾ by 8¾ inches, the work exemplifies the precise draftsmanship typical of 19th-century design studies. Rendered in crisp black lines, it highlights the vehicle’s graceful proportions, ornate detailing, and functional engineering—elements that would have guided craftsmen in the firm’s New York workshops. Brewster & Co. ranked among America’s leading carriage manufacturers during the Gilded Age, when such conveyances s...
About the Artist
Brewster & Co.|Channing Britton
**Brewster & Co.** Brewster & Company, a premier American coachbuilder renowned for its exquisite carriage designs, was established in 1810 in New Haven, Connecticut, by James Brewster (1788–1866). Born in 1788, Brewster trained as a wagonmaker's apprentice starting at age 16 in Northampton, Massachusetts, before relocating to New Haven, where he set up his workshop and quickly gained acclaim for...