barouche

A two-wheeled calash

A barouche, developed from the calash of the 18th century,^[1] was a fashionable type of horse-drawn carriage in the 19th century. It was a four-wheeled, shallow vehicle with two double seats inside, arranged so that the sitters on the front seat faced those on the back seat. It had a collapsible half-hood folding like a bellows over the back seat and an outside box seat high in front for the driver. The entire carriage was suspended on C springs. It was drawn by a pair of high-quality horses and was used principally for leisure driving in the summer. A light barouche was a barouchet or barouchette. A barouche-sociable was described as a cross between a barouche and a victoria.

A four-wheeled calash to be drawn by a pair (Podstreda Castle)

The word barouche is an anglicisation of the German word barutsche, via the Italian baroccio or biroccio and ultimately from the Latin birotus, "two-wheeled". The name thus became a misnomer, as the later form of the carriage had four wheels.

Calash

The earlier carriage type, called calash or caleche, was also a light carriage with small wheels, inside seats for four passengers, a separate driver's seat and a folding top. A folding calash top was a feature of two other types: the chaise, a two-wheeled carriage for one or two persons, a body hung on leather straps or thorough-braces, usually drawn by one horse; and a victoria, a low four-wheel pleasure carriage for two with a raised seat in front for the driver.

In Quebec, Canada, calèche refers to a two-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle with or without a folding top and with a driver's seat on the splashboard.^[2] In the Philippines, a small two-wheeled calash is called a kalesa or calesa.

Notes

1. ^ Casanova mentions a calèche à 2 roues (two-wheeled calash) first in 1742, a calèche à 4 roues (four-wheeled calash) in 1758 (Gunther)
2. ^ Musée McCord Museum - Caleche, Dufferin Terrace, Quebec City, QC, about 1920. McCord Museum of Canadian History, Montreal, Quebec.

References

Look up barouche in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Barouche.

• B1499 Horse-drawn carriage, barouche, timber / metal / glass / leather / textile, made by Shanks and Co, London, England, used by John Brown Watt in Sydney before 1888 - Powerhouse Museum Collection. Search barouche. Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia.
• Barouche: Definition with Barouche Pictures and Photos. Lexicus.
• Freesound :: view sample :: CalecheDownAlley.wav. Institut Universitari de l'Audiovisual (Institute of Audiovisual Studies), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain. Sound file.
• What is a Barouche? wiseGEEK.

External links

• Watch The Calèche Driver at NFB.ca