Coupé (carriage)

A coupé was a four-wheeled carriage with outside front seat for the driver and enclosed passenger seats for two persons.[1] The name coupé comes from the French past participle of couper, "cut".[2]

The coupé carriage body style originated from the berline horse-drawn carriage. The coupé version of the berline was introduced in the 18th century as a shortened ("cut") version with no rear-facing seat.[3][4][5][6] Normally, a coupe had a fixed glass window in the front of the passenger compartment.[7] The coupe was considered an ideal vehicle for women to use to go shopping or to make social visits.[8]

Types

The grand coupé with a curved body was the first common form of this carriage. Around 1830, the small coupé appeared, of four wheels, a closed squared body, with seats for two passengers. The coachman's seat, at the front and outside, rests on a chest. The small coupé is suspended on two pincer springs at the front and half-pincer springs at the rear, connected by a transverse spring. The small coupé was the model of the French fiacre.

There are a number of coupé types, including but not limited to:

  • Town coupé: a prestigious two-seater carriage, reserved for ceremonies.
  • Mail coupé: derived from the English-style mail coach, and retained the exterior seats and trunks.
  • Chariot: a type of curved light coupé.
  • Brougham: a type of squared small coupé.
  • Three-quarter coupé or Clarence: a coupé with a projecting glass front and seats for four passengers inside.
  • Landaulet: the coupé form of the landau. There are also the brougham-landaulet and the three-quarter landaulet.
  • Dorsay: a boat-shaped double-suspension coupé.

The coupé also refers to the front part of a composite carriage, such as a diligence (Continental-style stagecoach).

See also

References

  1. ^ Pleasant W. Johnson Johnson's Encyclopædia of Transportation 1892 p. 252 "COUPÉ. A four-wheeled close carriage, for two persons inside..."
  2. ^ "Coach Building Terminology". Coachbuilt.com. 2004. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
  3. ^ Haajanen, Lennart W. (2003). Illustrated Dictionary of Automobile Body Styles. Illustrations by Bertil Nydén. McFarland. pp. 16, 18, 20, 50. ISBN 0-7864-1276-3. LCCN 2002014546.
  4. ^ Adolphus, David Traver (March 2007). "Club Coupes - If you think you know what a Club Coupe is, think again". Hemmings Classic Car. Retrieved 30 March 2020. Coupé (some designers still insist on the 'koo-pay' pronunciation) is the French verb meaning 'to cut,' and it was first applied to 19th Century carriages, where the rear-facing seats had been eliminated, or cut out.
  5. ^ Haajanen, Lennart W. (2017). Illustrated Dictionary of Automobile Body Styles (Second ed.). McFarland. pp. 52–53, 57. ISBN 978-0-7864-9918-2. Retrieved 14 July 2018. "When the Berline body was shortened the Berline Coupe, or just Coupe, resulted."
  6. ^ "Royal carriages". Moscow Kremlin Museums. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  7. ^ Haajanen 2003, p. 50.
  8. ^ Stratton, Ezra (1878). "Chapter VIII. French carriages, including historical associations". World on Wheels. New York: Ezra Stratton. p. 242. ISBN 0-405-09006-4. OL 7004294M. Retrieved 2014-09-04. For the use of ladies making calls or engaged in shopping, no better carriage has yet been invented. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)

Further reading

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