East Hampton – Dominy Collections

Clients of the Dominy family extended as far as New Haven. As a result, their furniture sometimes referenced the styles characteristic of Connecticut cabinetmakers.

On March 15, 1777, the Dominys recorded an order for a clock to be made for Captain Levi Riley of Hartford. In addition to serving customers in this area, the Dominys also purchased cast-steel axes and other edge tools from Collins & Company, founded in 1826.

In 1783 Nathaniel Dominy IV made two timepieces for James Hazelton of Haddam, Connecticut. Hazelton was billed a total of £13 for both clocks.

Nathaniel Dominy IV frequently repaired watches for the Beckwith and Lester families of Lyme. The Beckwiths are described as "clothiers" in Nathaniel's accounts from 1800 to 1813.

In 1775, Nathaniel IV was commissioned by Samuel Babcox of Stonington to repair a clock and watch.

On November 7, 1799, Nathaniel IV billed David Gardiner of Flushing £36 for "1 clock." The bill indicates that David, like his brother, John Lyon Gardiner, obtained the clock face in New York.

By 1828, Felix Dominy must have been convinced that his future livelihood would not result from clock making or clock and watch repairs. It was in 1828 that Sarah Nicoll of Islip, Long Island, canceled her purchase of a “good and neat clock without any finery about it” from Felix because she considered his $80 price for such a clock, “a piece of folly”

On May 5, 1800, Nathaniel V billed John Lyon Gardiner (1770–1816) £20.8s. for making this desk-and-bookcase. The charge included crating and carting it to a waterfront area of East Hampton Village known as Fireplace and loading it onto a sloop bound for Gardiner’s Island. The most ambitious—and most expensive—piece of furniture ever made in the Dominy shop, it took approximately eighteen days to build.

The Dominys lived and worked in East Hampton. Proximity to a variety of markets and relatively little competition enabled the family to sustain a comfortable living for three generations.

In 1791, Nathaniel V billed Joseph Hedges of Patchogue the sum of £38 for a "Repeating, Alarm, Tell-Tale Clock."

In 1820, the Dominys made a couple of trips to Moriches, where they repaired a clock for Josiah Smith and made him a cherry case.

In addition to serving clients in Riverhead, the town was also the site of public executions as late as 1835. That year, Felix Dominy attended one "in full uniform" as a member of the militia at the invitation of General David Williamson. General Williamson added that the request for the militia's attendance had come from the Suffolk County sheriff and that "two Companies of horse, two Companies of Artillery, one Company of Infantry With the band of Musick" were expected to be present.

It is likely that Nathaniel IV's work for customers in Connecticut was delivered and picked up in Southold on the "North Fork" of Long Island. The connection with Southold continued when Nathaniel V was asked to supply the dimensions for a mill to be erected across Gardiner's Bay in Southold, New York after the successful construction of Hook Mill.

In 1832, James C. Norton of Quogue wrote to Felix Dominy asking if he would make a gunbox. Though at the time Felix was mostly doing metalworking while Nathaniel V was concerned with woodworking, the division of labor was not hard and fast.

Because of the survival of furniture patterns in the Dominy Tool Collection it can be shown that in a conservative area of English influence, such as Southampton, Nathaniel Dominy V made "Hudson Valley" side chairs like the one from about 1790 to 1830.

The Dominys frequently traveled to Sag Harbor for business and trade. Felix earned extra income by supplying clock components to Elijah Simons, a contemporary clockmaker who first advertised in the village of Sag Harbor in 1804. However, as Sag Harbor grew in importance during the first half of the nineteenth century, goods brought by steamboat meant the amount of work that fell to Felix and his father, Nathaniel Dominy V, dwindled. These changes eventually caused Felix to reevaluate his position as a craftsman.

Felix Dominy signed a contract to cover the dome of the Montauk Lighthouse in 1833. He covered it with "thirty two ounce copper" and painted it "with a good and substantial coat of paint." The work was to be completed by July 1, 1834; Felix was to receive $230 and be allowed to retain the old copper removed from the dome. According to Felix's calculations, 220 feet of copper sheets and 1,080 copper rivets were used.

In October, 1811, Nathaniel V billed Nathaniel Hand (1739–1824) of Amagansett, “To Desk for Nat £8.” “Nat” was Nathaniel Hand, Jr., a son of Nathaniel Hand. Nathaniel V received a payment on June 25, 1811, of ten dollars, the equivalent of £4. The son’s payment was likely an advance toward the desk ordered for Nathaniel Hand, bringing its total cost to £12.