Design for Rumble Sleigh, no. 3485
1889
Medium
Pen and black ink watercolor and gouache
Dimensions
Sheet: 6 15/16 x 9 1/4 in. (17.6 x 23.5 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of William Brewster, 1923
Accession Number
23.112.1272
Tags
Art Historical Context
This 1889 design drawing captures a proposed “Rumble Sleigh,” number 3485, created by the renowned New York firm Brewster & Co. Founded in the 1850s, Brewster became America’s leading carriage maker, supplying elegant vehicles to wealthy families. The sheet shows a low, open sleigh fitted with a rear “rumble” seat—an extra perch often used by servants or children—reflecting the social customs of late-nineteenth-century winter travel. Executed in pen and black ink with delicate watercolor and gouache washes, the drawing allowed designers to present both precise construction lines and the finis...
About the Artist
Brewster & Co.
**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...