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Here's another one. Two more to do. The guy builds them and sells them. This one (built in Illinois) is on its way to Texas.
I've done about 6 for him before this one. The others turned out actually better than this. He wanted this to look like some picture that a friend gave him, so it was minimized a little.
-------------------- Jeff Vrstal Main Street Signs 157 E. Main Street Evansville, WI 53536 1-608-882-0322 Posts: 670 | From: Evansville, Wisconsin | Registered: Sep 2001
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Nice job Jeff!! Does your friend have a web site or catalog available? I'm starting to hear of several folks buiding nice carriages around the country and, since there are currently more horses in the US than there were before they invented cars, this may be a growing niche market. I'm definately not interested in competing with you for this account but am curious about the possibilities of decorating and/or building stagecoaches, wagons, & hearses.
Somewhere in my stuff I've got a copy of an old book about wagon decoration & lettering that came out around 1906. As soon as I can find the darned thing I'll make some copies available to anyone interested.
Bob, did you get any pix of the old hearses? That's a special interest of mine. One of our funeral homes used a carriage company's horse-drawn hearse for a service a coupla years ago. It made quite an impression with family members walking behind it on the way to the cemetery. Folks not only stopped to let the procession pass, they had a bunch of cameras & video taking pictures which is unusual for this area.
-------------------- Chris Elliott 1longshot@classicnet.net cell 62084two2232 Posts: 686 | From: Scottsdale, AZ & Anthony, KS, USA | Registered: Dec 1999
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No, this guy is nowhere near "online" and will probably never be! I'll talk to him about it though and I'm sure that he'll be interested if it means he could make a buck or two. When he started out, the first one of these was JUNK. Well, not really, but I think he designed the thing on the back of a napkin and followed THAT plan to the letter... UGH! It's actually still on the road somewhere.
One of the things that he did early on was to increase the width of the doors to accomodate wedding dresses. To squeeze every nickel out of a ride, he placed a bench between the seats to allow for more people. Folks would get in, sit in the front and back seats, then he would add the center seat for the additional passengers.
Since then, he has really upgraded and shot for a quality coach rather than a quick money maker. These are very well upholstered on the inside and the outside (except for the wider doors) is very close to original styling.
He's one of those guys that always has too many irons in the fire with no time to finish anything but somehow manages to do it. I think that most of them are special order with some that he takes to Waverly, Iowa to auction. He sometimes brings them home if they don't get close to his price.
About the hearse... I have a furniture store client that opened its doors in 1869 as a Furniture store/Funeral Home. The hearse is still there! It's pretty magnificent. I'll try to get a picture of it.
Over the years I've done a lot of wagon work but one of the most interesting jobs was when a guy called me to ask if I'd come to his place to stripe a couple of wagons. He gave me directions and I drove to this dumpy little former farm in the middle of nowhere in NW Illinois. All that was left was a house, a couple of small out-buildings and a pretty good sized barn that appeared to be in a need of repair.
The guy came out of the house and showed me to the barn where I was totally blown away by the wagons, carriages and coaches that he had in there all in various stages of repair and reconstruction. He must have had 200 horse drawn vehicles in there. He explained some of the history of a few and it was very interesting with names like Packard and Studebaker.
One was a carriage owned by a Doctor or Lawyer... The driver sat in the front on a very comfortable seat, protected from the elements by the overhanging "scroll-like" roof. The passenger area was enclosed, upholstered...with seats that faced each other. The windows were beveled plate glass. Gas Lamps, and luggage areas in the rear and on top. In its day, it must have been THE CREAM OF THE CROP.
The guy looked at me and said that his kids thought that he was a crazy old guy and probably figured that when he passed on they would get nothing. He waved his arms around and said, "Here's their inheritance". I don't know what ever became of him, or the wagons but I'll bet the kids were happily surprised.
-------------------- Jeff Vrstal Main Street Signs 157 E. Main Street Evansville, WI 53536 1-608-882-0322 Posts: 670 | From: Evansville, Wisconsin | Registered: Sep 2001
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