Model of a Horseless Carriage

What is it?

This is a model of a so-called horseless carriage, an early version of the motor car. It still has the look of a horse-drawn carriage: the driver sits at the front, where a coachman would be, and the passengers sit inside. The spoked wheels, the suspension and the seat are like those of a carriage, but instead of a horse this kind of early car had an engine, which would have been installed under the floorboards. The handle grasped by the driver was for steering. These vehicles were on the roads in the later 19th century, but they were never adopted as widely as proper cars were in the 20th century. The first car ever to be seen in Abingdon came in 1896 with a circus and looked similar to this, but with an open top. This model is a clockwork toy. Victorian children had toy horseless carriages, just like later children had toy cars.