This clone from the Pear variety collection at Edr-Elvira in Budapest.Raised by Thaddeus Clapp of Dorchester, Massachusetts, date uncertain. Favorably reported upon by Mass. Horticultural Society in 1860. Added to A.P.S. catalog in 1867. Fruit of this variety resembles that of Bartlett in size and form but is somewhat smoother and frequently has a clubbed stem. Skin, greenish-yellow in color, quite free of blemish, often blushed, attractive. Flesh fairly fine, melting, juicy, some grit at the center. Sweet, pleasing, aromatic flavor, rates among the best of the early pears in dessert quality. A little too soft in texture to withstand commercial heandling. High susceptibility to core breakdown if left too long on tree. Tree fairly vigorous, well formed, good foliage, productive. Very susceptible to fire blight. -- H. Hartman 1957.
Clapp Favorite is the standard late summer pear to precede Bartlett, which it much resembles in size, shape, color and flavor. The season is usually a week to ten days before that of Bartlett. Fruit should be picked at least ten days before they would ripen on the tree. Fruits are usually a little larger than those of Bartlett. After Flemish Beauty and Tyson, the trees of this variety show greater hardihood to cold than those of any other standard sort; and of all pears in America, Kieffer not excepted, the trees of Clapp Favorite are most fruitful. The variety shows a predilection for heavy soils, and the trees may be set on the heaviest clays.
Tree large, upright-spreading, round-topped, produc-tive; trunk stocky, rough; branches characteristically shaggy, zigzag, reddish-brown, marked by few small, roundish, raised lenticels. Leaves 2 1/2 inches long, 1 1/2 inches wide, oval, leathery; apex taper-pointed; margin glandular, finely serrate; petiole 2 inches long. Flowers very showy, 1 5/8 inches across, large, well distributed, averaging 7 buds in a cluster. Fruit ripe in late August and early September; large, 4 inches long, 3 1/4 inches wide, obovate-obtuse-pyriform, symmetrical; stem 1 1/4 inches long, thick, curved, fleshy; cavity shal-low, narrow, lipped, with a fleshy ring around the stem; calyx large, open; lobes separated at the base, narrow, acuminate, erect and very stiff; basin shallow, wide, obtuse, wrinkled ; skin thick, tough, smooth, glossy ; color pale lemon-yellow, mottled and dotted with bright red, deepening in highly colored specimens to a crimson blush, with faint traces of russet ; dots numerous , small, russet, conspicuous ; flesh tinged with yellow, very granular and gritty at the center, tender and melting, buttery, juicy, sweet, rich, vinous, aromatic ; quality very good ; core large, closed, with clasping core-lines ; calyx-tube long, narrow, funnel-shaped; seeds medium in size and width, plump. -- condensed from U.P. Hedrick, The Pears of New York, 1921.
Monolinia fructigena fruit rot resistant in Germany. - Kock, 1911