A brake, also spelled break, was a type of horse-drawn carriage used in the nineteenth and early 20th centuries. It was a large or small, open-topped, straight-bodied pleasure vehicle with four wheels, designed for country use. The commonest form, the shooting brake, was designed to carry the driver and a footman or gamekeeper at the front facing forward, and up to six sportsmen on longitudinal benches, with their dogs, guns and game borne along the sides in slatted racks.
In the early 19th century, a break was a large, four-wheeled carriage-frame with no body, used for "breaking in" young horses, either singly or in teams of two or four. It has no body parts except for a high seat upon which the driver sits and a small platform for a helper immediately behind.
By the late 19th century the meaning had been extended to mean a large waggonette.
Today the term is sometimes used for an estate car or station wagon, especially in France.
External links
- Austin Carriage Museum, Weirsdale, Florida. Formerly Florida Carriage Museum & Resort. Photos and text: click on The Carriage Museum, then on Classification of Carriages, then Breaks.
- CAAOnline: Carriage Tourand *Seabrook Coaching Stable Dispersal Auction: Wagonette. Carriage Association of America. Illustrations and text.
- The Long Island Museum of American Art, History & Carriages, Stony Brook, New York: Collection Database. Search break; illustrations and text
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