[Nineteenth-century coach building.] Lithographed handbill advertisement for 'Wright's Patent Drag' (i.e. brake for a horse-drawn coach), with two illustrations by Baddeley, and four testimonials. With accompanying engraving.

Author: 
[Wright's Patent Drag (the Proprietor, No. 22 Church Street, Soho [subsequently 138 Holborn Bars]), London [Baddeley, engraver; nineteenth-century coach building; Victorian carriages; transport]
Publication details: 
'Royal Pier Hotel, Ryde, | July 25th, 1842.' ['Office of the Proprietor, No. 22 Church Street, Soho, London' , amended in manuscript to '138 Holborn Bars']
£180.00
SKU: 13865

Text: 2pp., foolscap 8vo (35 x 20.5cm.). Engraving: 12 x 16cm with corners clipped. Both items in fair condition, on aged paper. The text is cropped at the head, through a royal crest, and has rounded corners at the head and trimmed corners at the foot. The engraving has traces of grey paper mount on reverse. The text has lithograph illustrations of two side-views of four-wheel carriages with the drag applied, beneath the cropped crest and above the title 'WRIGHT'S PATENT DRAG.' Text consists of around 60 lines in copperplate. After explaining 'the great benefit obtained by unskidding the wheel before reaching the bottom of a hill', it gives 'Directions for use', referring to the accompanying engraving. 'It can be applied without regard to the pace in case of accident and may be accomplished by a child ten years of age.' Text ends with four testimonials: first, from George Rendall, William Lambert (Coachman) and John Whittington (Coach Builder), proprietors of 'the Rocket Coach running daily from Newport to this place [Ryde] and Ventnor'; second, from the 'Mining Journal Railway & Commercial Gazette'; third, from the 'United Service Gazette; fourth, from the 'Sporting Review' ('Much trouble is saved, and no little time consequently gained when Carriages are descending hills, by the adoption of Wright's Patent Drag; an invention which we pronounce to be "all Wright and no mistake!"'). The engraving is a side-view of a four-wheel carriage, with royal crest and 'VR' [for 'Victoria Regina') on the side. Captioned at foot: 'WRIGHT'S PATENT DRAG.' From the archive of William Silk (b.1824), coachbuilder, of the firm Silk & Sons, Long Acre, London. Scarce: no copies traced on COPAC or OCLC WorldCat.