Chaise

The name, in use in England before 1700, came from the French word "chaise" (meaning "chair") through a transference from a sedan-chair to a wheeled vehicle.

The two-wheeled version, usually of a chair-backed type, for one or two persons, also called a gig or one-horse shay, had a body hung on leather straps or thorough-braces and was usually drawn by one horse; a light chaise having two seats was a double chair.

A chaise-cart was a light carriage fitted with suspension, used for transporting lightweight goods.

A bath chair was a hooded and sometimes glassed wheeled chair used especially by invalids; it could be drawn by a horse or pushed by an attendant.

 

Other types of chaise included:

• post chaise : designed for fast long-distance travel;
• curricle: two-wheeled, usually drawn by two horses;
• calesín: small, one-horse, hooded, a seat behind for the driver, used in the Philippines;
• shandrydan or shandradan: with a hood;
• riding chair is a chaise body with no top.

During the winter of 1791/92, in the opening phases of the French Revolution, Henrietta Ponsonby, Countess of Bessborough, noted the lack of ostentation in the streets of Paris, where a few drove themselves about in "little open chaises like the cabriolet but with one horse."

• Post chaise