Let no person venture to purchase without the advice of a Coachmaker. It is easy enough to make an old worn-out Carriage appear fresh and fair by the help of Paint and Putty, while at the same time, it may be more fit to be broken up than to be made use of.
To promote the Sale of a Carriage, it is not seldom pretended, that it belongs to Sir Richard Whimmy, or to some other Gentleman of fashion, (who only parts with it merely because he happens to have it,) or that the Proprietor is gone abroad; to which is generally added, it has been only lately built, and has hardly worn the Nails of its First Wheels!!! &c.
First observe the Fashion of the Body, keeping in mind the time when such a shape was in vogue; examine the materials, especially the timbers of the Carriage; for however cunningly a clever Coach-Cobbler may have puttied and painted them, yet, in some parts, the infirmities and chinks which time has made, will be visible enough to Eyes accustomed to examine them.
If Old, the Futchells[12] in the chaps at the Pole Bolt hole, and at the top where the Gib is placed, are rough and patched with Leather; the Pole[13] if the original one, on the sides and top which go into the Futchells, is likewise worn, and patched with a tin covering. Look to the Transom Plates, if they are flat, thick, and clean, and that if by pushing against the Coach Box, or Springs, the Upper Carriage does not rock on them;—see that the Fore Axle-tree Bed, and transom at the middle where the Perch Bolt is placed, are sound, and that about the Perch Bolt hole there is not much patching with Leather—that the ends of the Transom where the Springs and Coach Box is placed look clean and sound;—the Splinter Bar, if much worn, has the moulding towards the end nearly effaced;—the Sway Bar[14] and that part of the bottom plate of the perch against which it wears, after much use is gulled, and the defect is made up with Leather patched on it;—the ends of the hind Axle-tree Bed where the Spring stays rest, if much indented, is old:—the hind Foot board-ledge being worn hollow, is another proof of the Carriage having been much used.
As to the Body part, examine principally the Bottom sides, at the end where the loops are placed; and in the corners of the rabbits under the Door bottoms where the standing Pillars are framed, if very old they will be rotten and appear rough; the mortices of the Door Locks, if gulled, and the Bolts of the Lock if loose in the Spindles, are proofs of their being old; and so it is if the Leather which covers the Roof of the Quarters and Boot, appear to have been mended at the welts, or if it has drawn from the sewings or nailing.
The Braces[15] should be supple and clean, free from patches and cracks at the bearings;—the Steps, if ricketty at the Joints, and when down, if the tread drops under, and the leather with which they are trimmed is dingy and torn at the joint knuckles; this shews them to have been much used: the leather also which covers the bottom sides at the entrance of the Doors, if Old, is rough, and has the grain worn or torn on the outside.
The Mahogany or Venetian Blind Frames, when old, have their colour discharged by the weather, and look of a dingy brown;—the Glass frames, particularly the front ones, are, when old, loose at the corners, the sides of the grooves loosened, and held together only by the Cloth which covers them.
Nothing is a better proof than the mouldings of the framings, and the Scroll ends or finishings of the timber; for if much filled with Paint, or defaced, it is a certain Proof of the Carriage having been often painted, and of course old; the paint will, with a slight knock, if not newly done, fly off in scales, particularly from the Iron work.
Examine well those places in the Body round the edges, if the framing where the wet has been likely to lodge has not been rotten, and the surface is not made up with Putty, or has been cased on the outside with new pieces of Wood moulding.
Examine the Cloth of the Lining, observe the sides and back against which the Shoulders rub, that the cloth is not threadbare, and that it is free from Moth-holes in every part.