Design for Rockaway (unnumbered)
Medium
Watercolor and ink
Dimensions
sheet: 6 1/4 x 9 1/8 in. (15.9 x 23.2 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of William Brewster, 1923
Accession Number
23.112.1574
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate watercolor and ink design captures a proposed Rockaway carriage, a popular light, open vehicle favored for leisurely travel in mid-19th-century America. Created between 1850 and 1870 by Brewster & Co. in collaboration with designer Channing Britton, the small sheet (just over six by nine inches) served as a working study for what would become a finely crafted coach. The Metropolitan Museum’s drawing reveals the careful planning behind elegant transportation, with subtle washes suggesting woodwork, upholstery, and metal fittings. Brewster & Co. ranked among the leading American c...
About the Artist
Brewster & Co.|Channing Britton
**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...