Four-in-hand (carriage)

Last updated
A four-in-hand in the Bois-de-Boulogne, Paris, 1905 LeFOUR-IN-HAND1905.jpg
A four-in-hand in the Bois-de-Boulogne, Paris, 1905

A Four-in-hand is any vehicle drawn by four horses driven by one person. [1] Driving large heavy carriages and private coaches drawn by four horses was a popular sporting activity of the rich after the middle of the 19th century. [2]

Prince Philip during the Lowther Driving Trials in Cumbria, UK in 2005 HRH Lowther 2005 horse driving.jpg
Prince Philip during the Lowther Driving Trials in Cumbria, UK in 2005

England's Four-in-Hand Driving Club was formed in 1856. Membership was limited to thirty and they all drove private coaches known as park drags made on the pattern of the old Post Office mail coaches but luxuriously finished and outfitted. A new group called the Coaching Club was formed in 1870 for those unable to join the club of 30. Other enthusiasts revived old coaching routes and took paying passengers. [2]

T. Bigelow Lawrence of Boston owned America's first locally built park drag in 1860. Leonard Jerome took to driving coaches with six and eight horse teams to go to watch horse races. New York's Coaching Club was formed in 1875. [2]

Today Four-in-hand driving is the top discipline of combined driving in equestrian sports. One of its major events is the FEI World Cup Driving series.

The four-in-hand knot used to tie neckwear may have developed from a knot used in the rigging of the lines.

Four-in-Hand in Art

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec</span> French painter and illustrator (1864–1901)

Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in the late 19th century allowed him to produce a collection of enticing, elegant, and provocative images of the sometimes decadent affairs of those times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albi</span> Prefecture and commune in Occitania, France

Albi is a commune in southern France. It is the prefecture of the Tarn department, on the river Tarn, 85 km northeast of Toulouse. Its inhabitants are called Albigensians. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Albi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suzanne Valadon</span> French painter and artists model

Suzanne Valadon was a French painter who was born Marie-Clémentine Valadon at Bessines-sur-Gartempe, Haute-Vienne, France. In 1894, Valadon became the first woman painter admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. She was also the mother of painter Maurice Utrillo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stagecoach</span> Type of covered wagon

A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are drawn by six horses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carriage</span> Generally horse-drawn means of transport

A carriage is a private four-wheeled vehicle for people and is most commonly horse-drawn. Second-hand private carriages were common public transport, the equivalent of modern cars used as taxis. Carriage suspensions are by leather strapping and, on those made in recent centuries, steel springs. Two-wheeled carriages are informal and usually owner-driven.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Mews</span> Grade I listed transport museum in City of Westminster, United Kingdom

The Royal Mews is a mews, or collection of equestrian stables, of the British royal family. In London these stables and stable-hands' quarters have occupied two main sites in turn, being located at first on the north side of Charing Cross, and then within the grounds of Buckingham Palace.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Postilion</span> Historical profession

A postilion or postillion is a person who guides a horse-drawn coach or post chaise while mounted on the horse or one of a pair of horses. By contrast, a coachman controls the horses from the vehicle itself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fairman Rogers</span>

Fairman Rogers was an American civil engineer, educator, and philanthropist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morven Park</span> Historic house in Virginia, United States

Morven Park is a 1,000-acre historic estate and horse park in Leesburg, Virginia, United States. Located on the grounds are the Morven Park Mansion, the Winmill Carriage Museum, formal boxwood gardens, miles of hiking and riding trails, and athletic fields. The park is also home to the Museum of Hounds and Hunting of North America with displays of art, artifacts and memorabilia about the sport of foxhunting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horses in art</span>

Horses have appeared in works of art throughout history, frequently as depictions of the horse in battle. The horse appears less frequently in modern art, partly because the horse is no longer significant either as a mode of transportation or as an implement of war. Most modern representations are of famous contemporary horses, artwork associated with horse racing, or artwork associated with the historic cowboy or Native American tradition of the American West. In the United Kingdom, depictions of fox hunting and nostalgic rural scenes involving horses continue to be made.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Equestrian at the 1900 Summer Olympics – Mail coach</span> Equestrian at the Olympics

The four-in-hand "mail coach" driving was an equestrian event at the 1900 Summer Olympics. There were 31 entrants listed for the event; all 28 of them are known by name. The event was won by Georges Nagelmackers of Belgium. Silver went to Léon Thome and bronze to Jean de Neuflize, both of France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coach (carriage)</span> Large four-wheeled closed carriage

A coach is a large, closed, four-wheeled, passenger-carrying vehicle or carriage usually drawn by two or more horses controlled by a coachman, a postilion, or both. A coach has doors in its sides and a front and a back seat inside. The driver has a raised seat in front of the carriage to allow better vision. It is often called a box, box seat, or coach box. There are many of types of coaches depending on the vehicle's purpose.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Remington Carriage Museum</span>

The Remington Carriage Museum is located in Cardston, Alberta, Canada. Opened in 1993, and the largest of its kind in the world, the Remington Carriage Museum displays more than 240 carriages.

<i>The Fairman Rogers Four-in-Hand</i> Painting by Thomas Eakins

The Fairman Rogers Four-in-Hand is an 1879-80 painting by Thomas Eakins. It shows Fairman Rogers driving a coaching party in his four-in-hand carriage through Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. It is thought to be the first painting to examine precisely, through systematic photographic analysis, how horses move.

<i>Moulin Rouge: La Goulue</i> Lithograph poster by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Moulin Rouge: La Goulue is a poster by French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. It is a colour lithograph from 1891, probably printed in about 3,000 copies, advertising the famous dancers La Goulue and "No-Bones" Valentin, and the new Paris dance hall Moulin Rouge. Although most examples were pasted as advertising posters and lost, surviving examples are in the collection of the Indianapolis Museum of Art and many other institutions.

<i>At the Moulin Rouge, The Dance</i> Painting by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

At the Moulin Rouge, the Dance is an oil-on-canvas painted by French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. It was painted in 1890, and is the second of a number of graphic paintings by Toulouse-Lautrec depicting the Moulin Rouge cabaret built in Paris in 1889. It portrays two dancers dancing the can-can in the middle of the crowded dance hall. A recently discovered inscription by Toulouse-Lautrec on the back of the painting reads: "The instruction of the new ones by Valentine the Boneless." This means that the man to the left of the woman dancing, is Valentin le désossé, a well-known dancer at the Moulin Rouge, and he is teaching the newest addition to the cabaret. To the right, is a mysterious aristocratic woman in pink. The background also features many aristocratic people such as poet Edward Yeats, the club owner and even Toulouse-Lautrec's father. The work is currently displayed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Désiré Dihau</span> French bassoonist and composer

Désiré Dihau was a French bassoonist and composer. He was the bassoonist painted by Edgar Degas in L'Orchestre de l'Opéra with the cellist Louis-Marie Pilet seated behind him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coaching Club of New York</span> Social club in New York City

The Coaching Club was formed in New York City in 1875 to encourage four-in-hand driving in America. It was intended to attract members from all parts of the United States.

<i>Count Alphonse de Toulouse-Lautrec Driving His Mail-Coach</i> Painting by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Count Alphonse de Toulouse-Lautrec Driving His Mail-Coach is a painting by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec of his father, a great lover of horses recognisable by his beard, completed in 1881 at the age of only 17 years. It is now in the Petit Palais in Paris.

References

  1. Oxford English Dictionary online accessed 20 August 2020
  2. 1 2 3 Alexander Mackay-Smith, Jean R. Druesedow, Thomas Ryder Man and the Horse: An Illustrated History of Equestrian Apparel P 100, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Simon and Schuster, New York. 1984