Rare. We have only been able to trace one other example of this print at the Science Museum in London.
A striking and detailed illustration of Sir Goldsworthy Gurney’s new steam coach.
Sir Goldsworthy Gurney (1793-1875) received a patent for his new steam coach in 1825 and began to manufacture them in London near Regent’s Park. In this image the coach is shown laden with passengers (both inside and outside the vehicle) as it moves along a dusty street. A cavalry man in the background is presumably intended to show the relative speed of the machine.
“While the press reported on the increasingly successful performance of his vehicles, Gurney had to contend with opposition from those who saw their livelihoods threatened by the arrival of road vehicles travelling at 11 or 12 miles per hour, at a quarter the price of horse-drawn transport. He negotiated with several contractors eager to begin public services and, after a number of false starts and short trial runs, the Gurney steam carriage took Colonel Sir Charles Dance and other important figures to Melksham, near Bath, from where it was towed by horses into Bath, and there carried many passengers round the city, before returning under its own power to London. Although various regional services were then started up, Gurney met with increasing hostility, ranging from stone-throwing and the placing of obstacles on the highway ahead of his carriages to the imposition of prohibitive tolls on vehicles moved by machinery.” (ODNB)
The choice of William Heath as the artist here is interesting as at the same time he was producing this technical drawing (presumably designed as an advertisement for the veichle) he was also designing prints such as March of Intellect (1829) which pokes fun at the man new inventions appearing in the metropolis including steam coaches. In Robert Seymour’s print, also titled The March of Intellect (1828) a man wanders through the street with a placard that reads, “New Patent Steam Coach from London to York in Four Hours.”
