Past Masters of the Livery: Master George Athelstane Thrupp, 1883

As a traditional carriage enthusiast I thought it might prove interesting to scroll through the list of Past Masters and I was not disappointed. A number of names were instantly familiar as representatives of some of Britain’s finest coach builders: Hopkinson, Turrill, Thorn, Peters, Holmes and Mulliner, to name but a few. One name in particular stood out, George Athelstane Thrupp, of Thrupp & Maberly. I recently recreated a version of one of its catalogues which revealed a fascinating history which might interest our carriage and motor vehicle enthusiasts:

In around 1900, British coach-building had reached the pinnacle of perfection, and prestigious London firms supplied the royal houses of Europe and indeed the world. Alongside such well known firms as Hooper, Peters, Barker and Laurie & Marner, Thrupp & Maberly belonged to the coach-building elite; holding a royal warrant as coachmakers to Her Majesty Queen Victoria by 1863.

Although it is known that the Thrupp family were trading in London as early as 1760, the origins of this family business can be traced back to Worcester, where John Thrupp operated as a coach builder in around 1740. It was actually his son, Joseph who came to London some 20 years later, opening a coachmaking business in George Street, Grosvenor Square, with access to his workshops through an archway in Oxford Street. By the 19th century these workshops were upgraded into a showroom to display the full range of company vehicles.

The brothers, John and Stephen Maberly were born into a long, family line of curriers; the specialist trade which processes leather after tanning so the hides are fit for use by other trades. Sometime around 1760 they set up in business as curriers and coach painters in Little Queen Street, Holborn, an extension of London’s Longacre, which, with more than 50 companies trading there, was at the heart of the City’s carriage building industry. At that time the two families appeared not to know each other. Over the next century it is easier to follow the fortunes of the Thrupp family, a large group which saw a number of members join the family firm, although there were also notable descendants who had no association with the carriage building industry; including an admiral and a barrister.

The London business was continued by Joseph’s youngest son, Charles, and Joseph’s nephew, Henry East Thrupp. Charles had nine children and upon his death bequeathed each of them £30,000. This was a great deal of money at the time and gives some indication as to the success of the family concern.

The most well known individual was Charles’s son, George Athelstane Thrupp, (1822–1905) who became a pioneer in the field of carriage building. George was a founder of the Coachmakers’ Benevolent Institution, helped form the Institute of British Carriage Manufacturers and established technical schools for the industry’s artisans. He also served as Master to the Worshipful Company of Coachmakers and Coach Harness Makers in 1883. George wrote a number of important works, including: “A History of the Art of Coachbuilding”, published in 1877, (picture right), “Coach Trimming”, with William Farr, in 1888, and edited William Sampson’s, “Handbook for Coach Painters”, published in the same year.

Little seems to be recorded about the partnership of the Maberly brothers, although they continued to trade from their premises in Little Queen Street and Welbeck Street, Cavendish Square until 1858, when George Maberly and his son, George Henry, left Welbeck Street and joined CJ Thrupp & Co at its Oxford Street address. The partnership immediately changed the company name to Thrupp & Maberly. Although the Maberly name appears to have been less well known at the time, it is interesting to note that both their trade cards and marketing material carried the following endorsement: “Maberly, Coach Maker, to His Imperial Majesty The Emperor of Russia and Her Imperial Highness The Grand Duchess of Oldenburgh”. This material also declared that the firm was the, “sole Patentee of the Self acting Hinge for securing Carriage Glasses”. The partnership between the two families did not remain a purely business one for long, when, in 1869, George Athelstane Thrupp’s sister, Ellen, married George Henry Maberly.

The newly formed business partnership was no doubt cemented by George Maberly’s marriage into the Thrupp family. Looking to the future, the management of the company was further strengthened when George Thrupp’s son, George Herbert joined the family firm. They exhibited their carriages with success at the Paris Exhibition of 1855 and at the London Exhibition of 1862 and then secured a coveted royal warrant as Coachmakers to Her Majesty, Queen Victoria. Thrupp & Maberly had earned themselves a well deserved reputation for quality, elegance of design and technical innovation.

A number of the foremost carriage builders survived the transition to the automobile by building bodies for motor cars. Thrupp & Maberly was amongst the most forward thinking of them all, as the company began a move towards making car bodies as early as the 1880s. They focussed on the early developments in electric cars, in particular the electric motors produced by Immisch & Co. of Kentish Town; which successfully fitted them to a series of carriages and dogcarts between 1887-1896. The firm fitted these motors to order and supplied an electric car to the Queen of Spain in 1896, which still looked very much like a conventional horse drawn carriage. The size of battery, range and charging requirements would prove the technology’s downfall and these vehicles never went into full scale production. Little did they know how innovative they actually were.

The company again showed itself as being at the forefront of the industry when it secured the licence for the Duryea Motor Wagon in 1897; an American company which was among the first to manufacture a standardised automobile powered by gasoline. Other commissions were secured and led to the firm producing a large number of bodies for cars during World War I. After the war, the company’s reputation secured contracts to build bespoke bodies for the most prestigious British and European automobile marques and the ensuing years saw Thrupp & Maberly bodies grace the finest examples of Rolls-Royce, Daimler and Bentley. By 1924 the company’s expansion necessitated a move to new premises at Cricklewood Lane, London. The success of the company caught the attention of the brothers, William and Reginald Rootes, who, backed financially by Prudential Assurance, purchased the company in 1925 in their bid to become the country’s foremost automobile manufacturer and distributor; which also saw them purchase Humber, Hillman, Singer, Sunbeam, and Talbot. 1929 would see another significant achievement for Thrupp & Maberly, when it was chosen to build the futuristically styled body for Sir Henry Segrave’s, land speed record car, the ‘Golden Arrow’. The firm continued to produce bodies for the Rootes Group, but, by the 1960s, this work was in severe decline, and the Cricklewood factory closed in 1967 and the company was voluntarily wound up a year later.

After just over 220 years of history, the firm of Thrupp & Maberly was no more. The enduring quality of its construction and design means its carriages and automobiles remain as desirable and sought-after as ever and wonderful examples of the company’s work are still in regular use today, including, Ascot Landau Nr. 5; still used by the Royal Mews every year to take members of the royal family to the races at Royal Ascot.

Renowned as a great sportsman, Captain Quintin Dick was a member of a prominent Irish family and Deputy Lieutenant for County Wicklow. A member of the Coaching Club from 1902 until his death in 1923, he only missed four of the 27 club meets in that time. He won the gold cup in the Coaching Club competition held at the International Horse Show, Olympia, in 1911. Top, centre, grey top hat, we see the Captain with his team of bay browns to his Thrupp & Maberly Park Drag. Below, the Captain and guests returning from a day at Royal Ascot with the same team; both pictures are also believed to have been taken around 1912.

Ascot Landau No 5

The Royal Mews now has five Ascot Landaus in the coach house at Windsor Castle, and as their name suggests, their primary function is to transport the royal party to the races at Royal Ascot. They are all numbered and similar in style, with painted, basket weave panels. Each is identified by a numbered brass plaque fixed to the splinter bar and the axles date stamped: Nos. 2 & 3 by Cook & Holdway, 1881 & 1882, No. 5 Thrupp & Maberly, 1874, No. 9 Barker & Co., 1887, No. 8 Hooper & Co., 1902. The Hooper is known as the King’s Ascot Landau as it was commissioned by Edward VII.

This Officer’s Tandem Cart is owned and competed by Belgian Urbain van de Voorde, who purchased it from a dealer in 1999. The serial number, 3324, is stamped on the axle ends and the body, and the presence of a coat of arms suggested the vehicle had a military past. Research confirmed the vehicle had belonged to the Royal Army Service Corps, (the Royal Corps of Transport from 1965) and was used for various Officers’ Mess activities. It was renovated in 1967, finished in blue and black and the badges replaced. This livery was maintained when Urbain restored the carriage in 2001.

An elegant Thrupp & Maberly Barouche finished in ivory. This fine example was purchased from a Thimbleby & Shorland carriage sale by David Goodey in the early 1980s. He sold it to carriage enthusiast Ian Smith in about 1995. Stan Harris of Cribbs & Sons, bought it for his own private collection in 2015. Cribbs is the country’s largest and oldest horse drawn funeral providers. In 2015, Stan gifted the carriage to head coachman, Peter Gibson, to mark 25 years with the company. Pictured above, Peter on the box with a pair of Hungarian greys.

Golden Arrow