Hermon Chapin Signed Book

Hermon Chapin's Personal Book

Some years ago I was picking a Brimfield show and came upon a pile of old books. Most were kids books but one was The Cabinet Of Arts, 1815. $10 and it was mine without looking it over carefully. Well worth the gamble for an old technical book. Once home I shelved it for future inspection. A week or so later, after sifting through the usual hoard of Brimfield paper, pottery and tools I got around to checking it. 

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 and John Dougall, A. M., London 1817. Read the ebook at Google Books.

This was one of those moments when I really could have kicked myself for not looking carefully in the field and grabbing all the other books. Check out these three images I scanned from the book. BTW, the book itself I sold some time ago.

Look at that last page. "The Property of Hermon Chapin, Hartford, Con, May 12th, 1826"

Yup, I may have missed the opportunity to purchase a part of Hermon Chapin's own library. This ranks up there with my most serious of goof ups. Almost as bad as not bidding on a local estate auction milk crate full of THREE Hazard Knowles planes. I was very new to tool collecting, didn't know diddlysquat and had maybe $20 in my pocket.

Moral: always check the interior of any book you are picking BEFORE you step away from that table.

For more on Hermon, hop to the Chapin Family Papers , Chapin-Stephens Co., the Hermon Chapin House, a recent resident and owner of The Chapin House, Michael Paul, and of course my FB group devoted to all things wooden planes: Rhykenologists International: The Study Of Wooden Planes.