Design for 4 Seat Sleigh, no. 4020
Medium
Pen and black ink, watercolor and gouache
Dimensions
Sheet: 5 15/16 x 9 1/8 in. (15.1 x 23.2 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of William Brewster, 1923
Accession Number
23.112.1259
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the elegant world of 19th-century coachmaking with *Design for 4 Seat Sleigh, no. 4020*, a meticulously crafted drawing from 1888 by the renowned New York firm Brewster & Co., with design attributed to Herman Stahmer. Produced the Gilded Age, when sleighs were prized symbols of luxury and leisure for America's elite, this sheet captures a four-seat cutter sleigh—ideal for family outings or social promenades across snowy landscapes. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's and Prints department, it was generously gifted by William Brewster in 1923, preserving a slice of industrial a...
About the Artist
Brewster & Co.|Herman Stahmer
**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...