Daniel Burnap of East Windsor, Connecticut. A cherry case tall clock. UU-72.
This important cherry case tall clock has an engraved dial signed by the clockmaker Daniel Burnap. Interestingly, his apprentice Daniel Porter engraves the front plate of the movement. The engraving reads, "D. Porter No. 3."
This fine cherry case retains an older finish. It stands on a molding that rests flat on the floor. The waist section is proportionally long. It is fitted with a shaped door that is trimmed with a molded edge. Please note the unusual spirally carved quarter columns into the front corners of the case. These terminate in turned wooden quarter capitals. There are also four carved bonnet columns that employ a twisted design. These visually support the arch of the hood. The pagoda top is decorated with a pierced and open fretwork pattern. Three finial plinths each support a turned wooden finial. The bonnet door is an arched form and fitted with glass. It opens to access the engraved brass dial.
Burnap's dials are of outstanding artistry. He was a skillful engraver. This is a fine representation of his work. The time ring is formatted with Roman-style hour numerals and Arabic-style five-minute markers. A subsidiary seconds dial is inset and positioned below the hour numeral XII. The date of the month aperture is large and of the traditional form. This is positioned above the hour numeral VI. This dial is signed by the Maker in the arch. It reads, "Daniel Burnap / E. Windsor."
The movement is brass and designed to run for eight days on a full wind. The front plate of this example bears a light engraving that reads, "D. Porter No 3." It is easy to speculate that Daniel Burnap's apprentice Daniel Porter worked on this clock. This is a wonderful nugget of history. The plates are supported by four traditionally shaped pillars or posts that are associated with the Harland / Burnap school of clockmaking. 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 88. 5 inches (7 feet 4.5 inches) tall to the top of the center finial. It is 20 inches wide and 11 inches deep, measured at the hood molding.
Inventory number UU-72.
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.
