Design for Landaulet, no. 970

Art Historical Context

This delicate design drawing captures a landaulet, a fashionable open carriage popular in the mid-nineteenth century. Created by the renowned New York firm Brewster & Co. in collaboration with designer Channing Britton between 1850 and 1870, the sheet shows the vehicle’s elegant lines, folding hood, and refined proportions. As a working design rather than a finished painting, it reveals how coachbuilders planned custom vehicles for wealthy clients who valued both comfort and style. The medium—pen and black ink with watercolor and gouache—allowed the artist to convey both precise structural details and the rich colors of paintwork and upholstery. Such drawings served as essential tools in the carriage trade, bridging the gap between client requests and the workshop. Brewster & Co. was celebrated for its craftsmanship, and pieces like this one document the height of American carriage design just before the automobile began to transform transportation. Today the sheet offers a charming glimpse into a vanished world of elegant travel, preserved at The Metropolitan Museum of Art through the generosity of William Brewster.

About the Artist

Brewster & Co.|Channing Britton · 1837–present

**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...