When the first coach quarters were covered with leather, they were nailed on and the heads showed. After 1660 these nail heads were covered with a strip of metal made to imitate a row of beads; from this practice arose the name of “beading,” which has been retained, although beading is now made in a continuous level piece, either rounded or angular.
The use of coaches had by this time spread from Europe to the colonies, and in 1740 there were many coaches and chariots in use at Spanish Town, Jamaica, and other large towns in America, wherever colonised by Europeans.
CHAPTER III.
STATE COACHES.
A Coach of Silver—Lord Castlemaine’s Coach—Spanish Ambassador’s Coach—Ancient Spanish Coach—Austrian State Coach—State Funeral Coach at Vienna—State Coach of England—City State Coach.
IN Count Gozzadini’s work on Ancient Carriages there is an account of a State Coach which was built under the direction of an Italian at Brussels, for the ceremony of the marriage of Alexander, the son of Octavius Farnese, Duke of Parma, with a Portuguese princess. The wedding took place in 1565 at Brussels. There were four carriages Flanders fashion, and four coaches after the Italian fashion, swinging on leather braces. The chief, or state coach, is described as built in the most beautiful manner, with four statues at the ends, the spokes of the wheels like fluted columns. There were seraphims’ heads at the ends of the roof and over the doorway, and festoons of fruit in relief on the framing of the body. The coachman was supported by two carved figures of lions, two similar lions were at the hind end, and the leather braces that supported the body and the harness were embossed with heads of animals. The ends of the steps were serpents’ heads. The whole of the wood and ironwork was covered with gold, relieved with white. The coach was drawn by four horses, with red and white plumes of feathers, and the covering of the body and of the horses was gold brocade with knotted red silk fringe. The cushions of embroidered gold stuff were perfumed “with amber and musk, that infused the soul of all who entered the coach with life, joy, and supreme pleasure.” The horses were cream colour. All this description would fit very much with the coach of the Duke of Saxe Coburg built twenty years later [[Plate No. 10]], except that the carving of the Brussels coach was superior, which is probably due to Capt. Francisco Marchi, of Bologna, who designed the whole.
A State Coach on a far more ambitious scale is described in the same work, which was built in Italy, for the marriage of Duke Edward Farnese with Lady Margaret of Tuscany in 1629. The body was lined with crimson velvet and gold thread, and the woodwork covered with silver plates, chased and embossed and perforated, in half relief. It could carry eight persons: four on the seats attached to the doors, and four in the back and front. The roof was supported by eight silver columns, on the roof were eight silver vases, and unicorns’ heads and lilies in full relief projected from the roof and ends of the body here and there. The roof was composed of twenty sticks, converging from the edge to the centre, which was crowned with a great rose with silver leaves on the outside, and inside by the armorial bearings of the Princes of Tuscany and Farnese held up by cupids. The curtains of the sides and back of the coach were of crimson velvet, embroidered with silver lilies with gold leaves. At the back and the front of the coach-carriage were statues of unicorns, surrounded by cupids and wreathed with lilies, grouped round the standards from which the body was suspended; on the tops of the standards were silver vases, with festoons of fruit, and wrought in silver. In the front were also statues of Justice and Mercy, supporting the coachman’s seat. The braces suspending the body were of leather, covered with crimson velvet; the wheels and pole were plated with polished silver. The whole was drawn by six horses, with harness and trappings covered with velvet, embroidered with gold and silver thread, and with silver buckles. It is said that twenty-five excellent silversmiths worked at this coach for two years, and used up 25,000 ounces of silver; and that the work was superintended by two master coachbuilders, one from Parma and the other from Piacenza.
An embassy was sent in the latter years of his reign by King James II. to Pope Innocent XI. at Rome, headed by Lord Castlemaine. An account was written of all the state and pomp with which he was received in Rome; a copy of this work is at the hall of the Coach and Coach-harness Makers. On Lord Castlemaine’s state entry into Rome, January 8th, 1687, a procession was formed of three hundred and thirty coaches. The ambassador had thirteen coaches of his own, in all probability built for him at Rome. Two of these were state coaches, and certainly were Roman. The bodies of these coaches were similar to that of Louis XIV., without glass in the doors or sides. They were hung inside and out with beautifully embroidered cloths, the one coach with crimson, the other with azure blue velvet, and gold and silver work. The roofs were adorned with scroll work and vases gilt; under the roof were curtains with silver fringes, and the ambassador’s armorial bearings. The carriage of the principal coach was adorned in front with two large Tritons, of carved wood, gilt all over, that supported a cushion for the coachman between them, and from their shoulders the braces depended. The foot-board was formed by a conch shell, between two dolphins. In the rear of the coach were two more Tritons, supporting not only the leather braces of the coach, but two other statues of Neptune and Cybele, who in turn held a royal crown. Below Neptune and Cybele, and projecting backwards, were a lion and a unicorn, and several cupids and wreaths of flowers. The wheels had moulded rims, and the spokes were hidden by curving foliage carving. The second coach had plainer wheels and fewer statues about it. In both, the size of the wheels were, as well as I can judge, 2 ft. 6 in. and 4 ft. high, and the length apart 12 ft. The whole appearance of these coaches may have been magnificent, but certainly not beautiful.[3]
There are a few records of a magnificent state coach that was built in 1713 for the Duke of Ossuna, ambassador from Philip V. of Spain on the occasion of making the peace of Utrecht. The body was in shape somewhat similar to Lord Darnley’s chariot at the South Kensington Museum, with the doorway projecting downwards some ten inches below the bottom sides, the quarters rake towards the roof considerably, the roof over the doorway is arched upwards, the upper quarters are fitted with large glasses of mirror plate-glass. It is elaborately and beautifully carved with figures of Tritons and Nymphs, cupids and lions. The wheels have carved spokes and felloes. It is hung upon leather braces from the usual standard posts, which are carved into figures of men and women, and the supports into figures of boys and baskets of fruit. There is a hammer-cloth cushion in front, and a footboard supported by Tritons blowing horns. The description of this coach was published at Amsterdam.