Mail Phaeton # 3922
Medium
Pen and black ink watercolor and gouache
Dimensions
sheet: 6 x 9 1/4 in. (15.2 x 23.5 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of William Brewster, 1923
Accession Number
23.112.739
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the elegant world of 19th-century coachmaking with *Mail Phaeton #3922*, a delicate 1884 design drawing by Herman Stahmer for the renowned New York firm Brewster & Co. This petite sheet (6 x 9¼ inches) captures a sleek, four-wheeled phaeton—a lightweight carriage favored for swift mail delivery and leisurely drives by the elite. Rendered in pen and black ink with watercolor and gouache, it showcases the phaeton's graceful curves, polished woodwork, and intricate detailing, evoking the Gilded Age's obsession with speed and style. Brewster & Co., established in 1810, was America's pre...
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...