18th Century Sedan Chairs

Last updated: Jan 7, 2024

Extant sedan chairs

• Met 18.128, a sedan chair made in Naples, 18th century
• Musée de la voiture CMV60D, a sedan chair painted with mythological figures, rinceaux, and cockle-shells, beginning of the 18th century
• Versailles T763, sedan chair à décor de marines, c. 1720
• The Theatrical Contest, 1743
• Musée de la voiture CMV109, mid-18th century
• Elstob & Elstob Feb 20 2021, Lot 707, “A mid 18th century English sedan chair, covered in leather, with dome top, glazed sides and hinged door.”
• Met 22.211, a carved and gilded sedan chair, Italian, c. 1750-1760
• Musée de la voiture CMV79, a Spanish sedan chair
• Musée de la voiture CMV99, model of a sedan chair, 1760
• RCIN 31182, Queen Charlote’s sedan chair, 1763
• Musée de la voiture CMV2015.002, sedan chair with floral and fruit decorations
• Musée de la voiture CMV2012.006, c. 1770-1780
• Versailles T3803, sedan chair with the arms of France and Nevarre encircled by the collar of Saint-Esprit, c. 1780
• Musée de la voiture CMV75 and CMV72, mule-driven sedan chairs
• Late 18th century sedan chair at Eaton Hall
• Musée de la voiture CMV80, a sedan chair painted with flower-baskets, urns, and doves, end of the 18th century
• RCIN 31181, sedan chair with Queen Charlotte’s monogram and coat of arms, c. 1790-1799
• Versailles T761C, sedan chair of the Maison du Roi, end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century
• RCIN 28118, Scottish sedan chair used by Baroness Nairne during her residency at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, c. 1800-1820

Depictions and descriptions

• Diverses petites figures des cris de Paris: Beggar addressing a woman about to get on a sedan-chair, c. 1695-1740
• Designs for the front and back of a sedan chair, French, c. 1700
• Detail from a view of the Palace of Versailles on the courtyard of la Chapelle at the beginning of the 18th century, c. 1725
• A Rake’s Progress: Arrested for Debt by William Hogarth, 1732-1735
• Jack in an Office, or Peter Necessary with Choice of Chamber pots
• Two men lifting a seated elderly figure from a sedan chair, c. 1732-1745
• The Mall, c. 1740-1750
• A sheet of figure studies by Paul Sandby
• Perspective view of Privy-Garden, 1741
• Detail from a view of the Orangerie and the Palace of Versailles from the Pièce d’Eau des Suisses by Jacques André Portail, 1741
• A Perspective View of ye Great Canal in St James’s Park, 1741
• The Theatrical Contest 1743
• Portrait of an unknown woman, c. 1745
• Gaillardise du Commun Jardin: The Cov.^t Garden Morning Frolick, 1747
• “In the year 1750, there was a ſtand of hackney-coaches in St Ann’s ſquare [in Manchester]; but theſe vehicles being found leſs convenient for ſome purposes than ſedan chairs, the latter took place of them, and few country towns have been better ſupplied with them. Some perſons who had quitted trade began to indulge in the luxury of a chaiſe of their own to take an airing; but it was not till 1758 that any perſon actually in buſineſs ſet up a carriage.” (A description of the Country …/Lancashire Worthies)
• St James’s Palace and Pall Mall, c. 1750s
• An east prospect of Westminster Abby, 1752
• The Lord Mayor’s Mansion House, 1753
• Odd Man Odd Man, 1757
• Oddities, 1757
• An officer standing on a pavement, c. 1763-1775
• The Present Age, 1767 by Louis-Philippe Boitard
• The Female Orators, 1768
• Sir Fopling Arrested, Drawn from a late real Scene, 1769?
• Scene in a London Street by John Collet, 1770
• The Piazza, Covent Garden, by Paul Sandby or Thomas Sandby, 1770
• The Piazza, Covent Garden by Paul Sandby
• Sedan chair, s.n. Sellier-carrossier, the Encyclopedia of Diderot & d’Alambert, 1771
• The Ladies Ridicule by Matthew Darly, 1772
• Two Bloods of Humour, returning from the Bagnio, after having kept it up, 1772
• Is this my Daughter Ann, 1774
• Part of Somerset House in the Strand, 1775
• Joseph Basnett in sedan chair 1777
• Monument du Costume Physique et Moral de la fin du Dix-huitième siècle: Les Précautions, 1777
• The Ladies Contrivance, or the Capital Conceit by Matthias Darly, 1777
• Gateway of Montagu House by Michael Angelo Rooker, 1778
• Return from the grand tour, 1778
• The new rooms at Bath and The north parade at Bath, 1779
• May Day, 1780
• Gallery and gardens of the Palais-Royal
• An English Sloop engaging a Dutch Man of War, 1781
• Old Palace Yard from Margaret Street, 1782
• Return from a Masquerade — A Morning Scene, 1784
• A Scotch Breeze, scene New Bridge Edinburgh by Isaac Cruikshank, 1784
  Letters from Edinburgh (1774-1775) also describes this problem: “As this town is ſituated on the borders of the ſea, and ſurrounded by hills of an immenſe height, the currents of air are carried down between them with a rapidity and a violence which nothing can reſiſt. It has frequently been known, taht in the new town at Edinburgh three or four people have ſcarce been able to ſhut th edoor of the houſe; and it is a very common accident to hear of ſedan chairs being overturned. It ſeems almoſt a neceſſary compliment here, to wait upon a lady the next morning, to hope ſhe got ſafe home. In many viſits which I have made ſince I came here, two peopel have been obliged to go on each ſide of the chair, to keep it even while other two have carried it; and ſometimes even this precaution has not been ſufficient.”
• An Edinburgh Sedan Chair with Two Porters by David Allan, c. 1785
• Kelham Whitelamb, aged 22, 1787
• The Social Pinch by John Kay, 1789
• A crowd outside a print-shop by J. Elwood, 1790
• Picturesque etchings and other rural studies from a set of Thomas Rowlandson’s etchings, 1790
• Detail from the façade of the Louvre with a view of Rue Fromenteau by Philibert-Louis Debucourt
• Poll Primrose, a Parody on Tom-Takle, 1795
• A Modern Belle going to the Rooms at Bath by James Gillray, 1796
• Pride and exaltation in a sedan chair, 1797
• Comforts of Bath by Thomas Rowlandson, 1798
• Paddy Whack’s First Ride in a Sedan, 1800
• Five in the morning, 1800
• Grotesque borders for rooms & halls by Thomas Rowlandson, 1800
• The King’s Harms, Manchester, c. 1800
• In the background of Cries of Edinburgh: Haddock, 1803