Brougham (carriage)

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Brougham carriage

Invented for Scottish jurist Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, or simply made fashionable by his example, a brougham (pronounced "broom" or "brohm") was a light, four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage built in the 19th century.^[1] It had an enclosed body with two doors, like the rear section of a coach; it sat two, sometimes with an extra pair of fold-away seats in the front corners, and with a box seat in front for the driver and a footman or passenger. Unlike a coach, the carriage had a glazed front window, so that the occupants could see forward. The forewheels were capable of turning sharply. A variant, called a brougham-landaulet, had a top collapsible from the rear doors backward.^[2]

In the 1930s, a brougham was a two-door sedan, especially one electrically driven. The term was also applied to a vehicle similar to a limousine but with an outside seat in front for the chauffeur and an enclosed cabin behind for the passengers.

1915 Detroit Electric Brougham

Cadillac first used the name on their Cadillac Brougham in 1916, and on their top models throughout the 20th century.

Over the years, Oldsmobile, Chevrolet, Pontiac, Chrysler, Plymouth and Dodge have also used the Brougham name to differentiate the more comfortably-appointed versions of a given model; Chevrolet Caprice Classic Brougham, Pontiac Parisienne Brougham, Chrysler New Yorker Brougham, Plymouth Valiant Brougham, and Dodge Monaco Brougham have all been produced.

Ford used the Brougham name on its 1970s-era LTD and Torino lines and some later models of vans.

[edit] Notes

^ The OED gives a first usage, 1851, but the original design dates from about 1838, according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Brougham died in 1868.
^ Compare the landau.