Daniel Burnap of East Windsor, Connecticut. A cherry case tall clock. RR-33.
This important cherry case tall clock was made by Daniel Burnap of East Windsor, Connecticut.
This fine cherry case retains an older finish. It stands on four nicely formed ogee bracket feet. The waist section is proportionally long. It is fitted with a shaped door that is trimmed with a molded edge. Fluted quarter columns that terminate in turned wooden quarter capitals are inset into the front corners of the case. Four fluted bonnet columns visually support the arch of the bonnet. The two located at the back are smoothly turned. The front two columns share the same design as the quarter capitals in the waist, except that they are free-standing and whole. Above the arch is a solid fret and three fluted finial plinths that support the three finials. These finials are wood and have been turned into the form of urns. The bonnet door is in an arched form and fitted with glass. It opens to access the engraved brass dial that retains an old silver wash.
Daniel Burnap's dials are of unusually fine artistry. He was a skillful engraver and was responsible for teaching others the trade. This is an excellent representation of his work. This sheet brass dial was originally finished in a silver wash. The time ring is formatted with Roman-style numeral hour figures and Arabic-style five-minute markers. A subsidiary seconds dial is inset and positioned below the hour numeral twelve. The date of the month aperture is of the traditional form. It is positioned above the numeral six. This dial is signed by the Maker. It reads, "Daniel Burnap / East Windsor."
The movement is brass and designed to run eight-day on a full wind. It features traditionally shaped pillars or posts. This clock is designed to strike the hour on a cast iron bell. It is of excellent quality.
This clock was made circa 1785 and stands 7 feet 5 inches tall to the top of the center finial.
Inventory Number RR-33.
Daniel Burnap. Clockmaker, silversmith, engraver, and instrumentmaker of East Windsor, Andover, and Coventry, Connecticut.
Daniel Burnap was born on November 1, 1759, in Coventry (which is now Andover), Connecticut. His parents were Captain Abraham and Susan (Wright) Burnap; his father, a Justice of the Peace, landowner, and farmer, came from Norwich and moved to Coventry before Daniel's birth. Many clock reference works list Daniel Burnap as an apprentice of Thomas Harland. Harland was an English-born clockmaker who settled in Norwich in 1773. It is currently believed that Burnap went to Harland's house on September 8, 1779, and remained in Norwich until July 7, 1880. Burnap must have acquired a good deal of clockmaking experience before he joined Harland. The relatively brief time that he spent with Harland was not sufficient for him to learn the entire craft of clockmaking. We think it is possible that at Harland's workshop he learned engraving, silversmithing and the manufacture of musical tall clocks. The matter is still a mystery. It is not known who gave Burnap the initial knowledge before he began his training with Harland.
Burnap moved to East Windsor sometime before 1780 and worked as a journeyman for John Fairchild; by 1786 he had built the homestead a few rods north of Bissell's Tavern, and later began making clocks and training his own apprentices.
The apprentice most famous for his work was Eli Terry, who became Connecticut's most well-known clockmaker. Terry was a pioneer in the introduction of mass-production methods in this country and is regarded as the first person in America to manufacture goods, or more precisely clocks, with interchangeable parts. Burmap also trained several others, including Daniel Kellogg, Harvey Sadd, Abel Bliss, Lewis Curtis, Nathaniel Olmsted, Levi Pitkin, Flavel Bingham, Ela Burnap, Thomas Lyman, and Daniel Porter. Many of these men carried on working in the clock business for long periods. Interestingly, we have a Burnap tall clock movement with Daniel Porter's name engraved on the front plate. The engraving indicates that Porter signed the clock while he was acting as an apprentice to Burnap. We also have a signed Burnap dial showing that Porter practiced his engraving on the back.
The design of Daniel Burnap's tall clock cases from East Windsor is rather similar. Simeon Loomis, the East Windsor cabinetmaker, was the supplier of many of these cases.
Burnap got married to Deliverance Kingsbury in 1782; the couple had no children, and Deliverance died in 1822. Daniel then married Mary (Kingsbury) in 1823, and they had three children: David (1824-1844), Mary Delia (1827-1912), and Charlotte Elizabeth (1830-1906). No current information is available on the year Burnap first started working in Coventry. Four tall clocks are known to be signed as being made in Coventry, one of which is clearly dated 1789 on the dial. In 1795, Daniel began buying up land in his hometown of Coventry. Although Daniel's land and house were situated in the town of Coventry, they were also within the area covered by the Andover Ecclesiastical Society, which had been established as early as 1747 and comprised parts of Coventry, Hebron, and Lebanon. When Andover became a town in 1848, it adopted the boundaries the Society had set. The only clock that is signed 'Andover' is known to us; it is now housed in the Nathaniel Hale Homestead Museum in Coventry, CT. In 1798, Burnap built a sawmill there, which became a major source of his income. He seems to have kept his shop in East Windsor for a while, even though he lived 20 miles away in Coventry, and he did so until 1805, when he finally closed the East Windsor shop.
Daniel Burnap was a lively and highly regarded member of the community. For a number of years, he served as a Justice of the Peace and held court in a large room on the first floor of this house. In his later life, he abandoned his shop and fitted out a room in the attic so he could stay busy with less demanding work, like engraving and repairing watches. He died in Andover on 26 September 1838 at the age of seventy-eight and had been a wealthy and respected citizen.
There are tall clocks marked Esat Windsor, Andover, and Coventry.
