Vardos
A Vardo is a traditional horse drawn wagon of the Romani. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the word to the mid-19th century. The Romani people have long been travelers, but did not use elaborately decorated vehicles as contained mobile homes. Some 17th century accounts describe vehicles transporting goods. Those vehicles became a support for tarps which provided overnight shelter. The image by Callot represents the 17th century vehicle type that would have been used by Romani in Europe.
Travel Coaches
From the 14th through the 16th centuries, the European Aristocracy traveled in carriages and litters featuring curved roofs and elaborate decoration. Some roofs were canvas and painted. Extant vehicles feature carved wood supports and roofs. Some vehicles had slung suspension that likely made the ride comfortable.
As of this time, I have no evidence of leaf springs or of use as mobile homes.
13th Century Artistic Record
14th Century Artistic Record
15th Century Artistic Record
La Manta Castle, province of Cuneo, northern Italy, Frescoes in the Baronial Hall. Fresco of the “Fountain of Youth”
Books, Banks, Buttons and …, Chiara Frugoni. Translated by William McCuaig. Columbia University Press, New York. Page145. Figure 99
ISBN: 0 231 12812 6
Frescoes in the Baronial Hall were done after Castle remodeling in 1420. Fountain of Youth done shortly after 1420 by an anonymous Painter known as “Master of Manta” (Maestro della Manta, 1416 – 1426)
16th Century Artistic Record
16th Century Extant Coaches
Prunkwagen, c. 1527 Universalmuseum Joanneum; um 1450 Buchenholz geschnitzt, bemalt, vergoldet Foto: UMJ
Upper part of a ceremonial carriage - In: Friedrich III exhibition. Imperial residence Wiener Neustadt. Catalog of the exhibition in St. Peter an dersperr, Wiener Neustadt, from May 28th to October 30th, 1966.
Published by the Office of the Lower Austrian Provincial Government. Editor Peter Weninger. Catalog of the Lower Austrian State Museum. N.F. 29. – Vienna: Office of the Lower Austrian Provincial Government, Cultural Department 1966. 436. 8°. Object number: 153, p. 357.
Herzoginbau Prunkwagen, c. 1560 - The Veste Coburg (Coburg Fortress)
Prunkwagon, c. 1560 Prunkwagen der Prinzessin Dorothea von Dänemark, um 1560, Veste Coburg, Inv.-Nr. XII3, nach Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg. Ausgewählte Werke, 2. überarb. Aufl., Coburg 1978, S. 46.