Authentic Antique

Horse Tricycles

This page is devoted to real authentic antique horse tricycles and velocipedes.  If you would like some info on how to spot fake horse tricycles, visit our fake antique horse tricycles page.  All of the tricycles on this page are genuine antiques or vintage tricycles with corresponding dates listed when available.

Antique Victorian horse velocipede with wooden rims, spokes and hubs.

1930's era horse tricycle with hinged body for turning.

Circa 1940 cast horse tricycle.

Late Victorian horse tricycle with steel rims.

Little boy riding in a horse drawn surrey type tricycle.

1930's era horse tricycle with disc wheels.

Circa 1910's all wooden horse tricycle with wooden wheels.

(Right)Victorian horse trike with wooden wheels & spokes, no metal tread though.

Victorian horse velocipede, again, with wooden rims and spokes and hubs, no metal tread on rims.

Antique 1800's horse tricycle with hand-crank mechanism and wooden wheels, rims and spokes.

Circa 1880's horse velocipede.

This baby is waaay too small for this old circa 1890 horse tricycle.

Circa turn of the century wooden horse tricycle with original paint.

Rusty early 1900's push-pull type horse tricycle, missing parts and tires.  Rides like an Irish mail car.

Circa 19-teens to 1920 era tricycle with horse body attached.

Antique Victorian circa 1880 horse velocipede with hand cranks.

Vintage Cyclops brand horse tricycle circa 1930 era.

French horse tricycle circa 1900 with large wheels.

Circa 1930's era toy horse trike sulky advertisement.

Victorian era horse trike with child rider..

Antique horse tricycle sulky type toy circa 1930's.

Late 1800's French made horse velocipede.

Restored 1920 era horse trike.

Circa 1870's wooden horse trike with cast iron steel face on the horse, French made.

Circa 1900 horse tricycle with much too small rider.

After viewing some original and genuinely authentic antique horse tricycles, it's pretty easy to see the difference between ones that are 100 years old and ones that were made in the past 10 years.  Most horse tricycles were luxury toys that most families could not afford.  They were not cheaply made toys, nor were they for toddlers.  So if you find one for sale that looks like a two year old would fit on it, it probably isn't real.  Likewise if it looks to be cheaply constructed, it's likely to be new.

If you take a look at the old antique studio portraits above with children posed on the tricycles, you will notice that many do not come close to reaching the pedals.  These tricycles were used as props only and not owned by the families in the photos.  Despite being able to afford photos, still most families could not afford horse trikes.  Also keep in mind that these were being produced prior to the mass production of safety bicycles (or bicycles like we are familiar with today).

So how about value on antique horse tricycles?  Well, the values will range widely depending on age, condition, rarity, form etc., but any that are from the first few years of 1900 back to the beginning of tricycle time won't be cheap.  If you find a real one at an auction, and there are at least two dealers there who know anything, it should be well over a thousand dollars, probably much more - again, depending on the type, condition....etc.  The newer models, which include many of the sulky type models, are worth far less, but in decent condition most in the 1930's and even up through the 40's should be worth a couple hundred dollars minimum - this is not including sit-and-scoot ride-on type wooden horse trikes.

If you think you've found an antique horse tricycle and still aren't sure about its authenticity, feel free to contact us about sending pictures so that we can help you out with dating it.  We will add more photos of authentic horse tricycles to this page.  Make sure you've also studied our Fake Horse Tricycles page before making an investment in any horse tricycle.