Daniel Burnap of East Windsor, Connecticut Musical tall clock. Case attributed to Elipalet Chapin or Simeon Loomis. XXSL-14.
This is a very important Chippendale cherry case tall clock. The engraved sheet brass dial is signed by the clockmaker Daniel Burnap of East Windsor, Connecticut. It features a musical movement that plays one of six tunes. American-made musical tall clocks are considered rare. Currently, less than eighty examples are known. They are prized by collectors and institutions.
This fantastic cherry case retains a pleasing old dry finish. It stands on four dramatically flared ogee bracket feet that are applied to the lower base molding. This molding is a double-step form and is attached to the base. The base transitions to the waist with a large cove waist molding. The waist section is proportionally long. It is fitted with a shaped door that is trimmed with a molded edge. A lock keeps this door secure, and a brass escutcheon frames the keyhole. Open this door, and one will gain access to the pendulum, which is comprised of an original steel rod and brass-faced bob. Three cast iron drive weights are also accessible inside the case. The transition to the pagoda-style hood is through the use of a large cove molding. Fluted columns that terminate in turned wooden capitals visually support the molded arch molding of the bonnet. These are also carved in a twisted pattern. Above this arch molding is the pagoda-style top. This is decorated with a pierced and open fretwork pattern, three tall reeded finial plinths, and turned wooden urn-and-spire finials. The bonnet door is an arched form and fitted with glass. It opens to access the engraved brass dial.
This clock is nearly identical to the example in the collection of Historic Deerfield. That case is attributed to the shop of Eliphalet Chapin. Burnap and Chapin were neighbors for over a decade. Burnap's bookkeeping indicates that he made payments to Chapin and Chapin's apprentices, Simeon Loomis and Jonathan Birge. See "Connecticut Valley Furniture"; Kugelman and Lionetti page 172-175.
Burnap's dials are of unusually fine workmanship. He was a skillful engraver, and this is a fine representation of his work. The time ring is formatted with Roman numeral hour markers 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. The lunette is engraved with a fan motif with floral decorations. Above this fan detail are the titles of the six tunes played by the clock. The tune names are framed with a scrolling foliate vine. The base of the fan is set with a cut and scrolled brass selector hand, which points to the selected tune. The tunes, which have neatly engraved titles, are; Elliot's Minuit / Hobb or Nobb / Rakes of Rodney /Fr. Kings Minuit / Ovr ye Water to Charley / Maid of ye Mill.
The dial is framed with floral and vine-work spandrels at each corner. This dial is signed by the Maker in the arch. It reads in flowing calligraphy, "Daniel Burnap / E. Windsor." The dial appears to retain traces of red-colored wax (or shellac) in the engraving of the signature, a detail found on some of Burnap's finest clocks.
The three-train musical brass movement bears all the characteristics of Daniel Burnap's work, including the unusual use of a count-wheel strike system and dead-beat escapement. By the time this clock was produced in the late 18th century, most clockmakers had given up this old-school count-wheel system of striking in favor of the rack and snail system. The Count wheel strike and dead-beat escapement are found in all of Burnap's musical movements and some of Thomas Harland's.
The bulbous, cigar-shaped pillars that hold the movement plates together are distinctively Harland-Burnap School, as are the sculpted edges of the plates that curve out around the pin barrel. The three plates of the movement are cast in rose-color brass [or bell metal], which is a distinctive feature. The works are weight-powered and of eight-day duration. It rings the hours on a single bell. It plays six tunes on eleven bells, struck by eleven hammers. The pinned barrel extends through the rear plate with an auxiliary half-plate to support the back of the bell rack, pin barrel, and fan. This is a hallmark of Thomas Harland's movements and those of his apprentices. The tunes are changed manually utilizing a selector hand in the dial arch. It plays the selected song three times every third hour. The music plays after the hour is struck on the large bell. It is of excellent quality.
This clock was made circa 1785 and stands 95 inches (7 feet 11 inches) tall to the top of the center finial. It is 19.75 inches wide and 11 inches deep, measured at the hood molding.
Inventory number XXSL-14.
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.
