Jonas Chickering was born in Mason Village, New Hampshire in 1798. He was a cabinet maker by trade, and 1818 he moved to Boston, but by 1819 he began working for piano maker John Osborn. In 1823, he started his own piano making company with James Stewart. The “Stewart & Chickering Company” became “Chickering & Company” when Stewart left three years later, and in 1830 it fell apart entirely, but not before Chickering had built a solid reputation for his pianos. It caught the eye of piano maker John Mackay, and the two formed a partnership in 1837, the pair building a concert hall and five-story factory together. Unfortunately, Mackay disappeared on a voyage to South America in 1841, leaving Chickering to run the company, which he did so with great success until the factory burned down in 1852. He died during its reconstruction, leaving behind a legacy as one of the greatest piano makers of the 19th century. His company was renamed “Chickering & Sons” after his sons took over, and the business persisted until 1983.

Chickering was one of the first piano makers to transition from handmade pianos to an industrial production process, allowing him more time to research improvements while churning out high-quality pianos that circulated throughout Europe and the United States. Chickering was also responsible for introducing the curved hammer strike lines in square pianos, allowing for bigger hammers, and he patented a signature type of single-piece iron frames made for square pianos that had wrest plank bridges and damper guides.

This individual piano was built in the period between his partnerships with Stewart and Mackay, so it was likely handcrafted by Chickering alone.