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F & R Shanks
London, England
Circa 1885
Type
The mail phaeton first appeared in England in the early years of the
nineteenth century. The suspension was the same as that used on the
English mail coach of 1805, i.e., with a combination of two side- and
two cross springs, known as “telegraph” springs, at the front
and, at the rear, a combination of three springs, i.e., two side elbow
springs and one cross spring (a so-called “gallows” spring).
The imitation cane-work on the seat panel has been done by the tube
method, using paint mixed to a very thick consistency and applied by
capillary feed from a metal tube. This panel is a very fine example
of the high quality a skilled craftsman could achieve by this method
on a surface with a double curvature. “Sham caning” by this
method was often done in Britain by itinerant French craftsmen.
The mail phaeton was a gentleman’s carriage that might be used
for pleasure driving or for travelling by “post,” that is,
making a journey by stages, using hired post horses driven postilion
by a postboy. It came to be seen as the ne plus ultra of gentleman’s
driving carriages. The mail phaeton was designed for use with a pair
of horses, and two grooms in livery would normally be carried on the
rear seat.
Provenance:
This mail phaeton was purchased from Major E.N. Barran of Yorkshire,
England, in 1968. Major Barran had bought it from a dealer in Harrogate
in the 1930s and he believed it had formerly belonged to a member of
the Curzon family who lived in Derbyshire. Major Barran was a regular
soldier serving in a British cavalry regiment at that time, and he started
driving with a pair of Hackney coach horses which he bought from H.J.
Colebrook in 1937. In the spring of 1940, Major Barran was severely
wounded and taken prisoner during the fighting in France. When he returned
to England in 1945, he started a new career in business and moved to
London. He then sold his horses, but not the carriages and harness,
presumably with the intention of taking up driving again one day. Major
Barran retired in 1966 and returned to live in Yorkshire, but two years
later he realized that starting driving again would not be possible,
and he reluctantly sold the phaeton to Mr. Seabrook.
The dash and splash guards of the phaeton were recovered with black
harness leather by A. Galloway, a skilled hand-stitcher, before it was
shipped to New Jersey. The painting was done more recently by Abner
Lapp, but the original imitation canework remains.
Builder:
Robert Shanks started as a coachbuilder in Lincoln’s Inn Fields
about 1840. Frederick Shanks, presumably Robert’s son, became a
partner in 1860, and the new firm was then called F & R Shanks at
70/71 Great Queen Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields. About 1895, the
firm opened a new factory in Parker Street near Long Acre in London,
and they started making bodies for automobiles there. The firm moved
out of the Great Queen Street premises about 1905 and continued in business
until about 1917, when they closed down. No records of the carriages
they built are known to exist.
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