It seems clear from this work, that one hundred years ago the art of Coachbuilding was in some respects equal to that of the present day. Their timber was carefully selected and dried, the bodies were framed and panelled, the shape, and curves, and side sweep, and turn-under was regulated by very careful drawings, the grooves for the blinds and glasses were well made. Blinds were made both panelled, perforated, and to open, just the same as those which we call venetian blinds, and a fourth sort with fixed open slats, as are now used in Turkey and India. Panels were then, as now in France, chiefly of walnut-wood, and M. Roubo describes the method of curving them by wetting one side and exposing the other to a hot fire. He also gives designs for the various tools used by the woodmen and the smiths. He enumerates the various classes of workmen, including painters and trimmers, and adds “all these are independent workmen, yet who should have a knowledge of one another’s work, that the work of one hinders not the work of another, their mutual knowledge should concur in the acceleration and perfection of the whole.”
Coaches at this period were hung comparatively high, being necessarily above the perch. Berlin Coaches or Vis-à-vis were hung between two perches, and therefore nearer to the ground. The body of some Berlins also had a solid top or roof, but the sides and ends were of leather, which could be rolled up to admit of more air. These may have given the idea of a singular carriage which preceded the Landau. [[Plate 23].] Some coaches had windows in the side quarters. A few were still made to hold eight persons inside. The shapes admitted of considerable variety; the elbow line was straight or in three or four curves; the quarters either what we call the britchka quarters, or a concave single sweep from the elbow to the end of the bottom side, like the shape of Her Majesty’s State Coach. Chariots were made with the hind quarter similar in shape to the front pillar, that is with a concave sweep. M. Roubo goes on to tell us that chariots, being smaller than coaches and lighter, were at first called diligences. But in consequence of the speedy passage of a stage coach from Paris to Lyons, it obtained the name of diligence, which has since remained to those large double coaches still in use on the Continent. We also find the drawing of an invalid or Dormeuse coach, very ingeniously contrived, and descriptions of the different summer open carriages, some with and some without springs; there are a few of really elegant shapes. He enumerates
chaises, phaetons, cabriolets, caleches, “Anglaises desobligeants” (or what we should call sulkies, that would only contain one person), lastly and the wourst, a vehicle introduced from Germany for sporting, and which is a Russian drosky, but very much longer than those we have seen in England, there is a crane neck in the perch to allow the wheel to turn, and the seat, which is hung on braces, is very narrow, for the passengers to sit on it astride.
M. Roubo describes at length, and gives a plan of the Anglaise. It is a chariot, with the modern curved lower quarter panel suspended upon a double swan-necked perch, rather high front wheels, and four whip springs, and with a small hammer-cloth in front. [[Plate 24].] There is one very similar preserved in the Museum of the Hotel Cluny at Paris. But on this vehicle M. Roubo remarks, “I see no beauty nor grace in the voiture à l’Anglaise, but it is no doubt sufficient that the invention of this vehicle comes from England, to make all the world desire to have them, as if there existed some law which obliges us to be the servile imitators of a nation who is our rival, and which, although it is respectable, and admirable even, in some respects, can never be equal to us for works of taste in general, and above all in Coachbuilding.”
Whilst we may smile at M. Roubo’s jealousy, we must allow the general truth of what he says, viz., that in works in which taste reigns paramount, the French do usually surpass the English; and as regards Coachbuilding, although we have the name for superior vehicles, and deservedly so as regards quality, durability, and ease, the French are beyond us in applying tasteful painting, trimming, and decoration of all sorts.