Musical Objects in Focus: Chickering & MacKay Square Grand Piano

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Join Tom Vaughn, Music, Arts, and Performance Coordinator, as he discusses and plays an 1839 Chickering and Mackay piano, recently donated to Old Sturbridge Village by Michael Rogan.
About the Makers:
Maker Jonas Chickering was born in 1798 in Mason Village, New Hampshire, and raised in nearby New Ipswich. His father, Abner, was a farmer/blacksmith who apprenticed Jonas to cabinetmaker John Gould for three years. During that time it is said he restored a damaged London piano to playable condition. Chickering went to work for Boston cabinetmaker James Baker in 1818. The next year he went to work for piano maker John Osborne on Orange Street. Chickering struck out on his own in 1823, partnering with piano maker James Stewart on Common Street. Their first piano was sold on June 23 for $275. That same year Chickering married Elizabeth Sumner Harraden, with whom he had four children.
The partnership with Stewart dissolved four years later. In 1830, Chickering formed a partnership with merchant and former ship captain John Mackay, who had previously been in business with Boston piano and organ maker Alpheus Babcock. They manufactured pianos at 416 Washington Street as Chickering & Company. Chickering supervised manufacturing and Mackay procured supplies and ran the business.
They built a new five-story factory in 1837/38 on Washington Street in Boston, employing about a hundred craftsmen, complete with warerooms and a small concert hall. Chickering developed and unsuccessfully attempted to patent a full cast iron frame for pianos in 1837, making for a more durable and more sonorous piano. From then until he received a patent in 1840 he incorporated full cast iron frames into some, but far from all, his pianos.
John Mackay was lost at sea in 1841. Chickering mortgaged the factory and bought his and William Mackay's shares. He continued to innovate, taking out additional patents for iron frames and developing the now-common technique of overstringing. He encouraged Ichabod Washburn of Worcester, MA to manufacture wire for piano strings. Chickering helped build the Boston Music Hall and served as president of both the Handel and Haydn Society and the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association. The Washington Street factory burned late in 1852. Despite the loss, Chickering organized a temporary factory and began construction of a new steam-powered factory at 791 Tremont Street. He was the most prolific piano maker in Boston and one of the leading manufacturers of pianos in the world. Before the new factory was completed, however, Chickering brought his sons into the business in 1853 as Chickering & Sons, but died suddenly that December. Music editor Lowell Mason shortly thereafter wrote, "The piano-forte has grown up and come to maturity in this country under the care and direction of Mr. Jonas Chickering."
Chickering & Sons became part of the American Piano Company in 1908. Subsequently, under the respective banners of Aeolian, Wurlitzer, and Baldwin, the Chickering brand continued into the early 2000s. Although no longer in operation today, Chickering & Sons pianos have left a rich legacy of pioneering technology and fine craftsmanship.