Category:Baskerville carriages at the Nottingham Industrial Museum

A letter from Mr.John Cockcroft, Curator of City of Nottingham Wollaton Park Museum dated 3rd Nov. 1989.

Says; We have three carriages with Baskerville connections. They came to Nottingham castle in the 1920's from Fuller's Coachbuilders Bath, where they had been displayed for some time. Previously they had been stored at Manton in Wiltshire. Two carriages have connections with John Baskerville of Birmingham. The third is of a later date. All have Baskerville Arms on their bodywork.

John Baskerville of Birmingham had no known links with the titled Baskervilles. How he acquired the carriages and how they came to be at Manton in Wiltshire is a mystery. A date of 1698 is associated with them in connection with one of the titled Baskervilles who was High Sheriff of Wiltshire at the time. I have seen no documentary proof of this but it has always been claimed.

The coach bodies are certainly of a later date, though the chassis with no springs, merely leather suspension straps, could be earlier. One vehicle is a dress landau, the Phaeton. It is said that John Baskerville liked gold and green colors, which are the basic colors of all the vehicles. I have seen no documentary proof of the link with the vehicles and John Baskerville, though the heraldic devices are completely spurious - except for the Baskerville element, and this supports the "impostor" argument. The elaborate decoration was said to have been applied by Baskerville's japanning workers, who worked with lacquer decoration on paper-mache boxes and trays. He had a number of business interests and was a prosperous man. His interest in letter design was more of a hobby than an occupation.

Read 'John Baskerville of Birmingham, letter Founder and Printer' by F.E.Pardoe published by Fredrick Muller Ltd., London 1975,ISBN 0584 103549."