[AFRICAN AMERICANA]. Wood molding plane made by Cesar Chelor (ca 1720-1784), the earliest documented African American planemaker in North America. Wrentham, Massachusetts. Ca 1750s-1780s.

Basic wood molding plane, yellow birch wood, approx. 9 3/4 in. length, 2 3/4 in. height (without wedge), 1 in. width at widest point, and 6 1/2 in. wedge. Components appear original. Wedge properly fits mortise, throat widened. Toe with maker's mark "CE Chelor / Wrentham."

Provenance: Consignor relates plane was purchased from renowned collector Norm Flayderman as part of a larger group of early planes from coastal Maine.

Cesar Chelor was an African American woodworker enslaved by the earliest documented Colonial American planemaker, Francis Nicholson (1683-1753). At a time when tradesmen relied heavily on English tool imports, woodworkers such as Nicholson began to specialize in the production of planes. Nicholson trained both his son and Chelor in the trade. When Nicholson died in 1753, he emancipated Chelor, providing him with land and tools which allowed Chelor to live independently and enter the planemaking business: "As to my Negroman Caesar Chelo[r] considering his faithful service, his tender care, & kind & Christian carriage I do set him free to act for himself in the world & I do will and bequeath to him...his bench & common bench tools, a set of chisels, one vice, one sithe & tackling & ten acres of land to be set to him at the end of my woodland...." Chelor worked independently as a successful planemaker for the next 31 years, signing his planes with various marks such "CE Chelor / Wrentham." Chelor it seems became a welcome and respected part of the Wrentham community. He was welcomed as a full member of the Congregational Church in 1741. In 1758 he married Juda Russell, and the couple had eight children. Chelor died in Wrentham in 1784, and is recognized today as one of the most prolific planemakers of the 18th century.