Museum - Manufacturers & Merchants
Hermon Chapin & the Chapin Companies

THE PROPERTY OF HERMON CHAPIN, HARTFORD, CON, MAY 12TH, 1826. His personal, signed copy of - The Cabinet Of Arts, or General Instructor in Arts, Science, Trade, Practical Machinery, The Means of Preserving Human Life and Political Economy, embracing A Variety of Important Subjects. By Hewson Clarke, Esq., of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and John Dugall, A. M. London... 1817. Sorry folks, what you see here is not the entire book. It's 300 plus pages and in very fragile condition, as you can see from the title, frontispiece and signature pages. Someday when I am wealthy I'll have the book fully restored.

The story behind the book. One Brimfield, just as we entered Heart of The Mart, Amy stepped into a booth full of Stuff and Books. She picked out a few likely prospects and handed them to me to review. The price was right at $10 each, so we took them and hit the field. When we returned home, I reviewed the days finds. This book turned out to be fairly rare and valuable in it's own right, though in need of conservation. I turned to the fore-leaf and spotted a signature, not at all unusual in books of this time period. "The Property of Hermon Chapin, Hartford, Con (sic), May 12th 1826" While it would be wonderful to say that I also found his personal notes in the book, nary a one could be found. Apparently Hermon took very good care of his books and did not besmirch them with annotations.

Trade Card
CHAPIN'S SOLID CHERRY LEVEL. 12 inch polished cherry level with handsome nickel plated top plate. No. 100. Packed one dozen in pasteboard box. Write For Prices. The H. Chapin's Son, Co., Pine Meadow, Conn. c?. Not really a trade card, but of the same size. Most likely a sales hand-out to hardware dealers.

Billhead
H. CHAPIN'S SON COMPY. Manufacturers of Rules, Planes, Etc. Pine Meadow, Conn. Established 1826 y H. Chapin. 1860 H. Chapin's Son (E. M. Chapin) Successor. April 25, 1900 (printed with a date of 189 _, crossed out, 1900 added). This billhead was offered at auction. Unfortunately I was outbid, but retained a copy for its' research value. Very high Victorian florid graphics along with some interesting historical features of the development of this famous company.

Billhead
THE CHAPIN-STEPHENS CO., V. P. Humason, Agent. Manufacturers of Rules, Planes. Levels, Etc.: 80 Chambers Street, New York: May 7, 1902. Sold to: Ira Edwards, Holley, NY. Rules, Level Glasses, Plumb Levels. Ira Edwards owned a hardware store in Holley, NY, held numerous mortgages for local people and was a New York State Assemblyman. Dennis Heza, Gary Katsanes and Gary Roberts of the Oldtools eMail list have assembled information regarding Mr. Edwards. This information will be organized and added to this site in the near future.

Receipt
H. CHAPIN'S SONS COMPY. MANUFACTURERS OF RULES, PLANES, ETC. Pine Meadow, Conn., Oct. 21, 1911, Receipt to R. R. Carter & Co. Curiously, the receipt notes: Established 1826, Succeeded in 1897 by The H. Chapin's Son Compy. Apparently they did not feel the need to point out from whom they had succeeded.