The New Steam Carriage.

Painting on glass, 62 x 84 cm, signed at lower margin "Morton del. / Pyall sculpt." (several white def. in glass, mostly at upper and lower section).

In sculpted gilt frame.

Designed and constructed by the inventor Goldsworth Gurney the steam-powered carriage was completed in 1828 and successfully travelled to and from London & Bath at a speed of 8 to 10 miles per hour. Steam carriages were the first powered buses. By 1834 about 14 steam carriages were seen on the metropolitan roads. As the text indicates, the carriage was about 15-20 feet long and weighed two tons. It could carry six passengers inside, with 12 more outside. Along with the early railroads, steam carriages presaged the coming of the mechanised industrial age. The glass painting was based on Pyall's famous aquatint engraving of a smaller size (30 x 40 cm).