1892 Brewster Park Drag Coach

*A bespoke and exceedingly luxurious mode of transportation from the Victorian Age
*Finished in its original Vanderbilt-designed livery of "A dash of burgundy mixed with plum"
*Custom built from new for Vanderbilt family members Hamilton and Florence Twombly
*Well-documented history and provenance

THE COACH OFFERED

James Brewster established Brewster & Co. as a carriage manufacturer in New Haven, Connecticut in 1810. Their artistry was recognized internationally, including a prize won in Paris in 1878. Brewster was known as America's leading coachbuilder to America's finest families. Back then, individuals of means traveled between and within cities in bespoke coaches and carriages that were built to their demanding specifications and tastes, very much like the most bespoke motorcars produced today.

The impressive and exceedingly luxurious Brewster Park Drag Carriage presented here was exactly the bespoke mode of transportation favored by prominent families for formal occasions. The Park Drag, which was a nimbler and more elegant version of Brewster's Road Coach, could be called the 19th century equivalent to a limousine. It was drawn by four well-trained horses, which were coached from a rooftop seat by the liveried chauffeur, and the prominent passengers rode comfortably within the enclosed carriage in style and class.

The stunningly restored and well-pedigreed example offered here was ordered from Brewster in February of 1892 by wealthy New York business executive Hamilton McKown Twombly. Born to a shipping merchant, Twombly was raised in Boston, and graduated from Harvard. Twombly went from wealthy to exceedingly rich when he married railroad heiress Florence Adele Vanderbilt in 1877. Together they maintained a residence in New York on the upscale Fifth Avenue, as well as country homes or estates, which included Vinland at Newport and Florham in Morristown, New Jersey. Florham was just a short trip on the "Millionaires Express" from New York City, and it is unlikely that Twombly ever needed to buy a ticket, as his in-laws of course owned more railroads than anyone.

The Brewster Park Drag was delivered new on June 10, 1892, at the Florham estate, and used here when the Twombly/Vanderbilt couple was in town. Florham was an impressive estate, built in the finest styles of the Gilded Age, by one of America's legendary architectural firms, McKim, Mead, and White, with the creative input of the landscape designer Olmsted Associates. Florham was set on 1,200 acres of land, of which an extraordinary 150 acres were transformed by Frederick Law Olmsted into a sprawling park of lawn, terraces, and formal gardens. The 100-room mansion, itself a Georgian Revival by design, overlooked the gardens. The impressive carriage house contained about 40 horses and several carriages, including the Brewster Park Drag offered here.

This Brewster Park Drag would greet its master at the train station with his daughter Ruth, who was an expert horsewoman, capable of driving four-in-hand; she would be accompanied by two uniformed footmen and a postillion, the latter the left-hand horse of the leading team. The Brewster Park Drag was finished as it appears today, in its color of the House of Vanderbilt, which Mrs. Twombly described as "a dash of burgundy mixed with plum," with pinstriping in vermillion.

The coach's fabrics were hand-picked for the purpose, and the woodwork was specified as "heavier than usual." A compartment at the rear opened from the top, forming a picnic table for gatherings at social and sporting events that the active Twomblys favored. Two tin-lined solid cherry boxes held wine bottles and glasses, while a wicker basket carried canes and umbrellas.

The Brewster Park Drag remained in faithful service to the Twombly and Vanderbilt families at Florham for 18 years. With the arrival of the motorcar, it was replaced in the carriage house by a fleet of no less than six Rolls-Royces, which were finished in the same bespoke livery. As the Great Depression took its toll, the Park Drag was finally sold in the mid-1930s, when acquired directly from the Twomblys by The Stables; a prominent Washington, D.C. based restaurant which had its heyday during the FDR years. The coach regularly appeared on the streets of the Capital in the care of noted Washington stable master Francis Hannan, carrying prominent dinner patrons between the city's finest hotels and the front door of The Stables, and is reported to have been used in four presidential inaugural parades.

The Brewster Park Drag was later restored to its original condition by Robert Kaetzel and Michael Dixon of Brownsville, Maryland, following research undertaken by Dr. H.K. Sowles, and became the centerpiece of exhibits at the Rose Hill Manor Carriage Museum in Frederick, Maryland, before its acquisition by a prominent collector of Brewster-built vehicles.

The Park Drag has made appearances in Newport, in support of the preservation of the renowned Cliff Walk "cottages," including the Twomblys' own Vinland. Vinland has now become McAuley Hall, part of Salve Regina University, while Florham, where the Park Drag once served, is owned by Fairleigh Dickinson University, in what is now called Florham Park, New Jersey.

Boasting incredible American history and provenance, including both exceptional craftsmanship by legendary Brewster & Co. and the allure of the Twombly and Vanderbilt legacies, this nearly 130-year-old Carriage offers a glimpse into a prominent past.

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