The Romany Vardo, or Gypsy Wagon, is the very epitome of a fairy tale. Who hasn't daydreamed of riding in the back of a colorful horse drawn carriage with a group of gaily singing, carefree fortune tellers and entertainers?

Of course the image we may have does not necessarily coincide with the reality of life for the Roms. Constant travel, hard work, and poor conditions were more often the lot of this people. But the legend of their creative spirits live on in these pieces of Art.

It is generally agreed upon that the Romany took to wagons during the mid 1800's. The wagons were usually highly ornate, many times with paintings of their horses, the names of their families and more personal decorations adorning them inside and out.
Charles Dickens wrote of one such vardo in his work, "Old Curiosity Shop", in 1840.

"One half of it... was carpeted, and so partitioned off at the further end as to accomodate a sleeping-place, constructed after the fashion of a berth on board ship, which was shaded, like the windows, with fair white curtains... The other half served for a kitchen, and was fitted up with a stove whose small chimney passed through the roof. It also held a closet or larder, several chests, a great pitcher of water, and a few cooking-utensils and articles of crockery. These latter necessaries hung upon the walls, which in that portion of the establishment devoted to the lady of the caravan, were ornamented with such gayer and lighter decorations as a triangle and a couple of well-thumbed tambourines."

Today only about one percent of the Romany population still live in vardos, hence the true vardos are becoming increasingly rare and valuable. This vardo belonged to at least three generations of the same Rom family. The undercarriage is orginal and it still has it's original Queenie stove! Some of the paintings on the side of the vardo are of the families horses, long since past on.

This particular vardo also has a matching flat cart which is original to the set. The flat cart is shown below

In the following detail shot you can see that the flat carts were detailed just as lovingly as the rest of the vardo.
What a true piece of history!