A Late 19th Century French Carved and Painted Horse Tricycle or “Cheval Mécanique”, circa 1880–1900

A spirited child’s horse tricycle of the type the French called the cheval mécanique, or mechanical horse. This is the toy on which Claude Monet painted his small son Jean in 1872, and which delighted nurseries on both sides of the Channel through the closing decades of the century. The horse is caught at full stretch, forelegs flung out before him as if clearing a fence. His body is carved from softwood and painted a soft cream. The head and neck are cast iron, made in two halves joined down the line of the face. They are modelled with pricked ears, flared nostrils and an open mouth, and touched with red to the ears and nostrils. Brass rosettes and remnants of the original bridle survive at the cheek, and a horsehair tail streams from the quarters.

The mechanism is ingenious and characteristic. A wrought-iron shaft passes through the horse’s head with a crank to either side, one still retaining its turned wooden grip. Turning the cranks drives a chain that runs back through the neck and body to a sprocket on the rear axle. Meanwhile, the young rider’s feet rest on pedals on the front fork, steering the front wheel. The rear axle can be used as a footrest. The rear frame is a handsome pierced cast-iron bracket of scrolling foliage and rosettes, carrying the axle between two large spoked iron wheels.

Ride-on toys of this kind were costly playthings, sold through the great Parisian department stores. They were made for comfortable middle-class nurseries, and they were ridden hard. This example wears its history openly, in rusted iron, crazed and flaking paint, and the scuffs of countless childhood journeys. It now makes an irresistibly characterful display piece for a nursery or playroom, a hallway, or a collection of early toys.

Provenance: France, late 19th Century.

Material: Carved and painted softwood (probably pine), cast and wrought iron, steel chain, turned wooden grip, and horsehair.

Condition: Displayed as found and offered as a decorative object; it is not intended for riding.

• Head: heavy surface rust on the cast-iron head and neck, with extensive paint loss. Both glass eyes are missing, leaving empty sockets, and only remnants of the bridle survive.
• Cranks: one crank has lost its wooden grip.
• Body: the carved body shows shrinkage splits along its constructional joints and widespread paint loss revealing the wood and earlier ground. There are old fixing holes to the back, probably from a now-missing saddle.
• Shoulder: a break with losses to the wood around the iron collar bracket.
• Metalwork: rust throughout the wheels and frame. Some nuts may be later replacements.
• Tail: thinned.
• General: wear commensurate with age and use.

Dimensions: 29 in long x 28 in high x 18½ in wide (74 cm x 71 cm x 47 cm). Length is taken from the front of the front wheel to the back of the rear wheels, height to the tips of the ears, and width across the rear axle.