Model Carriage in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2020

Model Carriage
second half of the 17th century

probably South German


Object Details

Title: Model Carriage

Date: second half of the 17th century

Culture: probably South German

Medium: Lime- and cherry woods (partially gilded), leather,
silk, felt, sheet silver (embossed, stamped), silver wire, gold wire,
paper, horsehair, sheet steel, steel wire, paint

Dimensions: 5 1/8 × 3 15/16 × 13 in. (13 × 10 × 33 cm)

Classification: games or toys

Credit Line: Esterházy Privatstiftung, Burg Forchtenstein - Esterházy Schatzkammer

Though it is unlikely that an odometer would have been affixed to a vehicle of this exact type, this precise small-scale reproduction of a carriage from about 1680 illustrates the structure of Renaissance and Baroque coaches. The ornamented sheets of silver that cover the model recall the silver furniture suites popular among the aristocracy at the time; documents describe full-scale parade and ambassadorial carriages covered in silver, but none survive.


Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/770588