4: 19th-Century Carriages

Sedan chair

1856

Court Carriage Establishment

St Petersburg, Russia

180x95x72 cm

Wood, metal, velvet, silk, glass; casting, chasing, gilding, weaving

The history of the collection of sedan chairs is directly connected with the formation of the Court Stables Museum. Such conveyances were mainly produced by Western European craftsmen in the 18th and 19th centuries. The sedan chair is a small relatively light coach body seating a single passenger. It was carried by two or four men holding long poles running through iron brackets on the sides of the body. In Russia sedan chairs were not widely used, although they were occasionally made for ailing members of the imperial family.

This sedan chair was made in the Court Carriage Establishment in St Petersburg in 1856 for Dowager Empress Alexandra Fiodorovna on the occasion of the coronation of Emperor Alexander II.