A Federal Cherrywood Easy Chair, Aaron Chapin shop, signed by Jeremiah Cleveland (1794-1836), Hartford, Connecticut, circa 1810

Inscribed Aaron Chapin & Son / Jeremiah C. Cleveland in graphite across the back of the crest rail.

Probable original owner, William Gay (1767-1844), of Suffield, Connecticut;
To Malcolm A. Norton (1857-1937) of Hartford, Connecticut, who purchased it at a local auction of the Gay Family household goods in 1915;
By descent in his family;
Louis Joseph Auction Gallery, Inc. Boston, Important Auction of the Malcolm A. Norton Collection from the Estate of the Late Walter P. Crabtree, Jr., West Hartford, Connecticut, October 28, 1975, lot 134.

The Magazine Antiques, May 1977 "Collectors' notes";
Kugelman, Thomas P. and Alice K. Kugelman with Robert Lionetti. Connecticut Valley Furniture: Eliphalet Chapin and His Contemporaries, 1750-1800. Hartford: Connecticut Historical Society Museum, 2005, fig. 7.7, p. 359.

Secondary wood is pine; with some old marks scratches and nicks consistent with age and use. Upholstery on the back attached with Velcro.
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This chair was made in the Hartford shop of Aaron Chapin (1753-1838) by Jeremiah Clement Cleveland (1794-1836). After working for nine years in East Windsor with his second cousin, Eliphalet Chapin, Aaron opened his own shop in Hartford in 1783.  Over the span of his career, he trained many apprentices and journeyman, including his son Laertes (1778-1847) who became his partner in 1807, and Jeremiah Cleveland, the craftsman whose signature appears on this chair.  Born in Norwich on June 14, 1794 to the clergyman Aaron Cleveland, Jeremiah moved with his family to Hartford in 1803, where he later trained in the Chapin shop. He moved to Batavia, Ohio by October 19, 1819, when he married Elizabeth Robinson. He continued to make furniture there until his death on July 19, 1836.

Distinguished by unusually tall wings and turned Sheraton-style front legs, this chair serves as testament to Jeremiah Cleveland’s competence as a cabinetmaker.  The frame is made of tulip poplar and the vertical supports of basswood. It retains its original sackcloth underupholstery and most of its linen webbing, as well as its original brass casters. The turned front legs are the only such examples documented to the Aaron Chapin shop.

This chair’s probable original owner was William Gay (1767-1844), a prominent lawyer and postmaster who likely commissioned it for a large home he purchased in Suffield in 1811. A later inscription written on the back provides additional provenance: “This chair belongs to the famous Gay House Collection in Suffield Ct. and was sold at the Auction in October 1915 and purchased by Malcolm A. Norton of Hartford Ct on the 30 of November 1915 and received Dec 3d 1915.”  At Malcolm Norton’s death, this chair descended through his family until 1975, when it was sold as part of his collection at Louis Joseph Auction Gallery, Inc., in Boston.

A related easy chair owned by Historic Deerfield also with unusually tall wings and a tulip poplar frame was made in the Aaron Chapin shop by Benjamin C. Gillett of Torrington. Displaying on its frame an Aaron Chapin advertisement and the inscription “B C Gillett / 1806,” it was probably made for the 1806 wedding of Hepzibah Loomis (1786-1866) of Windsor and Eli Clark (1781-1841) of East Granby. For an illustration of this easy chair, see Thomas Kugelman and Alice K. Kugelman with Robert Lionetti, Connecticut Valley Furniture: Eliphalet Chapin and His Contemporaries, 1750-1800, Hartford, 2005, as fig. 7.6 on p. 359.