Chickering Jonas, *5 April 1797 Mason (New Hampshire), †8 December 1853 Boston, American piano maker. In 1823, he established a piano factory in Boston in partnership with J. Stewart (until 1826). Between 1830 and 1841, he worked in partnership with J. Mackay; in 1837, he also worked temporarily with A. Babcock, and thereafter on his own. From 1851, the firm operated as Chickering & Sons, managed by Chickering’s sons: Thomas E. (*1824 Boston, †14 February 1871 Boston), Frank (*20 January 1827 Boston, †23 March 1891 New York) and George Harvey (*18 April 1830 Boston, †17 November 1899 Milton, Massachusetts). In 1908 it was acquired by the American Piano Company; from 1932 it was part of the Aeolian American Corporation; in 1983 it ceased production, which was resumed in 1985 by the Wurlitzer Company. Between 1905 and 1910, A. Dolmetsch ran a special department at the factory where harpsichords, clavichords, viols and lutes were made. Chickering was the first in the world to use full metal frames in his instruments (patent for upright pianos in 1840, for grand pianos in 1843), and was soon imitated by other manufacturers, led by Steinway. Chickering’s instruments were awarded prizes at, among others, the World’s Fair in Paris in 1867.
Literature: R.A. Lott Chickering, Stainway, and Three Nineteenth-Century European Piano Virtuosos, “Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society” XXI, 1995.
