For Immediate Release: September 13, 2002

Media Contact:
Diane Bartlett
Director of Marketing Communications
Phone: (703) 777-2414
FAX: (703) 777-3282
E-mail: dbartlett@morvenpark.org

RARE ANTIQUE VEHICLE RETURNS TO THE WINMILL CARRIAGE COLLECTION AT
MORVEN PARK

LEESBURG, VA (September 2002) A rare piece of history has rolled into Leesburg. Called a “Caleche,” the elegant four-wheeled, four-passenger, private carriage is the result of a two-year conservative restoration effort to preserve the valuable piece of the Viola Winmill Carriage Collection. The Winmill Carriage Collection is located at Morven Park, the last home of Governor and Mrs. Westmoreland Davis, a 1,200-acre estate just outside the town of Leesburg in Loudoun County.

The Caleche in the Winmill Carriage Collection was built in the 1890’s by the Million & Guilet coachbuilders of Paris, France. A Caleche was considered a luxury during its day, its expense limiting its ownership to the very privileged few. Today, the vehicles are considered very rare, as most of these vehicles were burned for their parts when they became unusable.

According to Mrs. Winmill, as stated in the book Gone Away With the Winmills, the Caleche was used by the late Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco during the making of the film, “The Swan,” in Georgia. The Princess expressed interest in purchasing the carriage from Mrs. Winmill, but Viola simply could not part with it.

Ernie Schwartz and his team of skilled craftsmen from the Schwartz Antique Carriage Restoration shop in Nappanee, Indiana were given the monumental task of refurbishing the Parisian carriage. Each part of the conservation restoration process was thoroughly researched and documented. Mr. Schwartz consulted with Jack Day of Monkton, Maryland, providing samples of lacing, paint and pin striping, during the estimated 550 labor hours that were required to complete the project. Mr. Day is a director of the Carriage Association of America, an avid carriage collector, and an appraiser of private and museum carriage collections.

Some of the most striking parts of the carriage are its numerous C-Springs. “I marveled at how the undercarriage was made,” said Mr. Schwartz. The C-Spring is part of the suspension system of the carriage, built from layers of steel and leather. On the Million & Guilet Caleche, the C-Springs are the most important, the most difficult and the most expensive pieces to restore. The rear C-Springs on the Caleche are extraordinary in that their elegant design incorporates thick leather sway straps, which provide stability while entering or exiting the carriage by preventing the suspended body from swinging left or right.

The Process of Conservative Restoration:

The goal of the conservative restoration of the Caleche was to preserve the original pieces of the carriage, restoring it only to the condition it was in while under the care of its collector, Mrs. Viola Townsend Winmill.

Ernie Schwartz summarized the stages the Caleche underwent from start to finish. First, the carriage was completely disassembled. All steel parts were sandblasted and primed. In keeping with the originality of the piece, no steel parts were replaced; items such as bolts were repaired, as the pieces are neither interchangeable nor readily available.

The wood pieces of the carriage were stripped with a heat gun rather than with liquids in order to keep the wood dry, and then lightly sanded. During the stripping process, Mr. Schwartz looked carefully to see if there were any signs of prior repainting or repair. Despite suspicions that the Caleche had been repainted once before, Mr. Schwartz was unable to detect the presence of any under layers of paint.

Six layers of urethane primer were added to the stripped wood and steel surfaces, with rough sanding between the first three coats, and fine sanding between the last three coats. Sanding layers of primer insures a smooth topcoat-painting surface, Mr. Schwartz explained. Mr. Schwartz praised the condition of the steel and wood parts of the Winmill Caleche, which he said were not pitted, but were in excellent shape.

After the six layers of primer, four layers of urethane topcoat were added, followed by brush-applied pin striping. Each layer of paint, from primer to topcoat, was allowed to dry for weeks or months at a time to allow the paint to cure permanently to the surface. Mr. Schwartz emphasized the superiority of modern urethane paint, which stretches with the steel and wood in hot and cold conditions without cracking.

Viola Townsend Winmill:

Viola Townsend Winmill began driving carriages as a child, but by 1928 most horse-drawn vehicles were being replaced with automobiles. In May of 1928, Robert Winmill presented to his wife a birthday gift of a road coach, four horses and eight driving lessons with world-renown driving expert Morris E. Howlett. Mrs. Winmill drove for thirty years in both competitions and demonstrations, including driving a stagecoach during the Inaugural Parade of President Dwight Eisenhower. Her collection grew to over 120 vehicles, including coaches, surreys, carts and sleighs and other types of private and commercial carriages, as well as a funeral hearse and fire engine. The collection also contains a number of antique horse harnesses and other horse equipment. In 1969 with her health failing, Mrs. Winmill chose Morven Park as the permanent home for her carriage collection, and was present at the groundbreaking and ribbon-cutting ceremonies. The Winmill Carriage Collection has been on display at Morven Park since 1970.