Carriage Tour

The Wagonette is another family-type carriage, very popular because of the ease with which passengers could be included. The earliest Wagonettes were built in England prior to 1850. The early versions were always quite large and were thought of as country vehicles. As their popularity grew so did the variety of styles and sizes. The primary identifying feature of the Wagonette is the longitudinal seats to the rear of the driver’s position, facing each other as in the Omnibus, with a door in the rear. The driver’s seat may be on the same level as those rear seats or slightly elevated. This pony size Wagonette was built by Walburn & Riker, of Ohio, a firm known especially for the pony carriage they manufactured. Their story is told brilliantly in a book by Ben Riker: PONY WAGON TOWN.