ABSTRACT

Alpheus Babcock, a significant American piano maker and inventor, is best known for his invention of the one-piece metal FRAME, patented 17 December 1825, in Boston. Having learned his craft from BENJAMIN CREHORE in Milton, Massachusetts, Babcock set up shop with his brother Lewis (1779-1814) in Boston in 1810, and after Lewis's death he carried on, both in partnership and on his own. During the 1820s he was financed by the Mackay family in Boston, one of whose members was John Mackay (1774-1841), later JONAS CHICKERING'S partner, and NAMEBOARD inscriptions referring to G. (George) D.Mackay (d. 1824) and R.(Ruth) Mackay (1742-1833) are common among surviving Babcock instruments. Babcock married Margaret Perkins (1789-1842) in 1822, and they had one son, John (1828-1847).