PhaetonBack to Carriages

This carriage term was rather loosely used, but usually applied to a smaller open carriage driven by the owner. A phaeton was often drawn by two horses and came in several styles. Basically, the phaeton was a rakish, fast, and very eye catching vehicle (which is why it was so popular with the rakish, fast crowd who wanted the public to notice them), but it was also unstable and prone to tip. The young men who drove phaetons such as our Spider Phaeton were known as "high flyers" due to the speed with which they drove their sporty rigs.