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 in Coventry (now Andover), Connecticut, on November 1, 1759. His parents were Captain Abraham and Susan (Wright) Burnap. His father, a Justice of the Peace, landowner, and farmer, was originally from Norwich and had moved to Coventry before Daniel was born. One can find Daniel Burnap listed in numerous clock reference materials as an apprentice of Thomas Harland. Harland was a very talented English-born clockmaker who settled in the village of Norwich in 1773. It is now thought that Burnap arrived at Harland's door on September 8, 1779, and stayed in Norwich until July 7, 1880. Burnap must have had a fair amount of clock training before staying with Harland. The relatively short period of time Burnap stayed in Harland, would not have been long enough to learn the complete art of clockmaking. We speculate that Burnap may have learned the skills of engraving, silversmithing, and musical tall clock manufacturing at Harland's shop. The mystery remains. It is not known who provided the groundwork of knowledge to Burnap before he trained with Harland.
Burnap settled in the town of East Windsor sometime before 1780 and was working as a journeyman for John Fairchild. By 1786, he had built the homestead located a few rods north of Bissell's Tavern. Soon, Burnap was active in making clocks and training apprentices of his own.
Burnap's most well-known apprentice is Eli Terry, who became Connecticut's most famous clockmaker. Terry was a pioneer in the development of mass-production techniques in this country and is credited with being the first person in America to manufacture goods, or more specifically clocks, that had interchangeable parts. Burmap also trained Daniel Kellogg, Harvey Sadd, Abel Bliss, Lewis Curtis, Nathaniel Olmsted, Levi Pitkin, Flavel Bingham, Ela Burnap, Thomas Lyman, and Daniel Porter. Several of these gentlemen worked many years in the clock trades. Interestingly, we owned a Burnap tall clock movement engraved with Daniel Porter's name on the front plate. The presence of this engraving suggests that Porter signed the works of this clock while working for Burnap as an apprentice. We have also owned a signed Burnap dial that has evidence of Porter practicing his engraving skills on the back.
Daniel Burnap's East Windsor tall clock cases are somewhat similar in design. Many of these cases were supplied by the East Windsor cabinetmaker Simeon Loomis.
In 1782, Burnap married Deliverance Kingsbury. They did not have any children. It is not currently known when Burnap first worked in Coventry. Three tall clocks are known to us signed with Coventry as a place location. Interestingly, one is prominently dated on the dial 1789. In 1795, Daniel began to purchase land in his hometown of Coventry. While Daniel's land/house was in the town of Coventry, it was also within the borders of the Andover Ecclesiastical Society, which existed as early as 1747 and included parts of Coventry, Hebron, and Lebanon. When Andover became a town in 1848, it simply took the boundaries as had been defined the Society. We are aware of one clock signed Andover. This clock is currently in the Nathaniel Hale Homestead Museum in Coventry, CT. In 1798, Burnap built a sawmill there, and this became a major source of his income. It appears that he maintained his East Windsor shop for a time while living 20 miles away in Coventry. He did this until 1805 when he closed the East Windsor shop.
Daniel Burnap was an active and respected citizen. He was for many years a Justice of the Peace and held court in a spacious room on the first floor of this house. In his later years, Burnap gave up his shop and fitted up a room in the attic of the house where he could keep busy with the less arduous kinds of work such as engraving and repairing watches. He died in 1838 at the age of seventy-eight, a prosperous and respected citizen.
