There is quite a rage for tricycling this season at Brighton. Owing to the marvelous perfection attained in steel work, tricycles are now produced, combining great strength with extreme lightness. The mode of propulsion having also been greatly improved, they have become a fascintaing and exhilarating means of exercise and locomotion. Ladies have taken to them, doctors do their visits on them, and tradesmen circulate their goods by them.
– article ‘Tricycles Coming to the Front’. The World of London magazine, 1878
1889 Lady’s Quadrant Tricycle
Model 14A
30″ Rear wheels
26″ Front wheel
Accessory: Rear Carrier frame ready to fit a wicker box
(Now sold)
Mastery of a gentleman’s bicycle required youth and athletic prowess and, within the constraints of a conservative society, was entirely unsuitable for a lady. So cycle manufacturers started encouraging women to take up the hobby by riding a machine which would protect their decency. That machine was the tricycle. Every tricycle maker experienced a considerable boost in sales after Queen Victoria endorsed British industry in 1881 by buying two tricycles, and that decade became its heyday.
The ‘Quadrant Tricycle Co’ specialised in this market. Featuring double driving and ‘revolving handlebar to facilitate mounting’, the Lady’s Quadrant Tricycle Model 14 competed directly with Rudge’s Royal Crescent and became the company’s most popular lady’s model.
This example is owned by a friend who has asked me to advertise it for him. It has three broken spokes and the joint that flips the handlebar forward is stiff through lack of use so requires some penetrating fluid. Overall, as you can see, it’s in very good all-round condition and is a wonderful survivor of a lost era.
1892 FRENCH QUADRANT CATALOGUE EXTRACT
QUADRANT TRICYCLE REAR AXLE
1888 CLARK CYCLE CO CATALOGUE EXTRACTS
