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 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.
