Pius IX's Sedan Carriage

I mentioned in a recent post that I possess a model of a sedan carriage of Blessed Pius IX and a reader has requested a close-up photo. Apologies, I wrongly stated that this was the carriage used for the Pope's flight to Gaeta (just over the border in the Kingdom of Naples and the Two Sicilies) during the Revolution of 1848, when the Pontiff crept out of the Quirinale dressed as a simple priest. It's actually the carriage he used on his triumphal return to Rome from Gaeta on 12 April 1850. As John Francis Maguire put it, 'amidst a dense mass of human beings, through which French and Roman troops with difficulty preserved an open space, Pius made his entry. Such was the enthusiasm now manifested, that one unacquainted with the Italian character might have supposed the people had suddenly gone delirious.'

The model, by the way, was produced by Brumm and can often be found on e-bay, as I did.