Carriages

As early as in the 18th century there were two main groups of carriages.

In the first one there were all the enclosed ones: coaches, berlins and Vis-à-vis.

The second group consisted of open vehicles, so called carriages: wagonettes, landaus, featons as well as whiskeys – following the foreign fashion, introduced for a short time, finally our Polish britzkas.

A Vis-à-vis is a carriage in which persons sit face to face.

A Coupe was a carriage for two people, in France called diligence. One of this kind was owned by Prince Józef Poniatowski.

A wagonette was a carriage for two people.

A landau is a type of four wheeled, covered carriage, designed for four people, a city carriage of luxury type, ideal in unpredictable weather.

A cabriolet was popularized by Józef Poniatowski. At that time a whiskey was very popular in England.

It’s a light, two-wheeled carriage drawn by a single horse, with a folding calash hood of leather, seating two persons facing forwards, one of whom is the driver.

Soon a native invention appeared – a britzka (also britzska). It met all the expectations. Each region had its favourite type, adopted to the local conditions. There was a huge number of Polish britzkas types. They were usually four-wheeled carriages. All the two-wheeled carriages, gigs and charrettes were either sports in character or poor.

At the beginning of the 20^{th century there was the biggest amount of carriage manufacturers. World War I put an end to that period.}