"Four-in-Hand"

This picture shows an elegant red and black coach, designed by Brewster & Co., New York's most celebrated carriage manufacturer. Six people and the driver ride seated on top of the coach as it is drawn along a country road by two dappled gray horses leading a pair of dark brown horses (proceeding from left to right). The driver (holding a whip) sits next to a woman dressed in blue (holding a red parasol)—their laps are protected by a checkered carriage robe. Behind them are two men sitting on either side of another woman, and in the back row, two men are seated with their arms crossed. All the gentlemen wear black top hats. In the right background, there is a lovely vista of rolling green hills.

The New York lithography firm of Currier & Ives grew from a printing business established by Nathaniel Currier (1813–1888) in 1835. Expansion led, in 1857, to a partnership with James Merritt Ives (1824–1895). The firm operated until 1907, producing over 4,000 subjects for distribution across America and Europe with popular categories including landscape, marines, natural history, scenes of daily life, caricatures, portraits, history and foreign views. Until the 1880s, images were printed in monochrome, then hand-colored. In the latter decades of the nineteenth century, as here, Currier & Ives began to print in color.