Design for Pony Phaeton, no. 3336
Brewster & Co.
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Brewster & Company History Established in 1810 by James Brewster (1788–1866) in New Haven, Connecticut, Brewster & Company, specialized in the manufacture of fine carriages. The founder opened a New York showroom in 1827 at 53-54 Broad Street, and the company flourished under generations of family leadership. Expansion necessitated moves around lower Manhattan, with name changes reflecting shifts of management–James Brewster & Sons operated at 25 Canal Street, James Brewster Sons at 396 Broadway, and Brewster of Broome Street was based at 372 & 374 Broome Street with a repository (showroom) on 14th Street & Fifth Avenue. By 1874, Brewster & Company had 400 employees and combined warehouse and factory facilities at 47th & 48th Streets and Broadway. Brewster successfully branched out to produce their own automobiles, as well as supplying bodies for Rolls Royce at their Long Island City location. Notable clientele included Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, August Belmont, J.P. Morgan, John Jacob Astor, Andrew J. Cassatt (brother of artist Mary Cassatt), William Rockefeller, Henry Clay Frick and Pierre Lorillard. Talented draftsmen employed by the firm included Paul Steinbeck, Herman Stahmer and John Gribbon, the latter teaching at the Carriage Builders and Designers Technical School, which opened in 1880 and was housed initially at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When the company finally dissolved in 1923, its last owner William Brewster (1866–1949) donated its archive of design and presentation drawings to the Museum where he served as benefactor and trustee. Of all American carriage manufacturers, none was as highly regarded for design, finish and quality as Brewster & Company. They won many awards for outstanding workmanship, including the Legion d’Honneur (Legion of Honor) at the 1878 Paris Exposition (3rd World’s Fair). In appreciation for this achievement the Carriage Builders’ National Association presented them with a gold enameled Tiffany & Company plaque and autograph book signed by leading American carriage builders, both now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Merri Ferrell, 2016
Drawings and Prints
An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.