Case furniture of the Chapin school, 1775-1800

Magazine Antiques, Feb, 2005 by Thomas P. Kugelman, Alice K. Kugelman

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Since the ogee-foot furniture forms appeared late in Chapin's career, only a handful can be reliably documented to his shop: two desks-and-bookcases, a chest-on-chest, two chests of drawers, and possibly a clock case or two. The chest-on-chest (Pls. IV, IX), which was originally built into a wall of a Windsor house belonging to Elisha Strong (1747-1826), is noteworthy in several respects. Only the facade is finished; the removable pediment slides off the upper case, a feature that became popular in the region after 1790; and the fretwork consists of C-scrolls, a design otherwise used by Chapin only in a clock-case pediment.

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In the 1780s Chapin's graduate apprentices and journeymen began establishing their own shops, employing design patterns and construction techniques similar to those they had learned in Chapin's shop. Their work, referred to as the Chapin school, began with Eliphalet's second cousin, Aaron Chapin, twelve years his junior, who worked with Eliphalet from 1774 to 1783, presumably first as a journeyman and later as an independent craftsman. Aaron moved to Hartford in 1783, and his shop's output during its first decade is virtually indistinguishable from that of the East Windsor shop. It can usually be identified only by apprentices' signatures or other documentation, such as a bill of sale. Significantly, no cabriole-legged furniture has been documented to Aaron's Hartford shop, nor did he list any in his newspaper advertisements.

Other Eliphalet Chapin apprentices and/or journeymen whose output has been identified include Israel Porter, who worked in East Windsor; Wethersfield, and Middletown, Connecticut; Benjamin Newberry, in Wethersfield; Simeon Loomis (1767-1865), in East Windsor and Lansingburgh, New York; Julius Barnard, in Northampton, Massachusetts, Hanover, New Hampshire, Windsor, Vermont, and Montreal (see Pls. III, XIII); William Flagg, in Hartford, East Hartford, and possibly Providence, Rhode Island (see Pl. XII); Erastus Grant in Westfield, Massachusetts (see Pl. VI); and probably Jonathan Birge (1768-1820) in East Windsor.

Barnard worked between 1790 and 1800 in his hometown of Northampton. He is credited with making the high chest in Plate XIII (see also Pl. III), which was once owned by the Massachusetts governor Caleb Strong (1744-1819). Although the high chest incorporates many Chapin index features, the turned center finial, molding profiles, carving, and drawer construction are unlike those observed on high chests from Chapin's shop.

Flagg's name is associated with several objects of high quality, all in the later ogee-foot group. He inscribed his full name and/or the incised initials WF on two Chapin shop desks-and-bookcases (see Pl. V) and two chests of drawers (see Pl. XII). The chest illustrated is one of only three Hartford County chests of drawers identified in the study that have a serpentine facade, flared corners, and claw-and-ball feet. (9) Flagg, whose initials appear on the outside of the bottom board of the chest of drawers, may still have been working for Chapin when he made it, or it could date from after 1796 when he was working independently in Hartford and East Hartford.