Vane Glory
January 2007
The market for antique weathervanes is reeling. The world auction price record has been broken |
Steam locomotive and tender weathervane, |
After standing for 16 years, the record price of $770,000 was broken last January with the sale of a Goddess of Liberty weathervane at Christie’s New York for $1,080,000. Then in August, Northeast Auctions in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, sold a locomotive weathervane for $1,216,000. But topping both was a 5-foot-tall circa 1900 American Indian chief perched on a 67-inch arrow, which struck the bull’s-eye at Sotheby’s New York in October, selling for $5,840,000. The high estimate had been a modest $150,000.
Nancy Druckman, head of Sotheby’s American Folk Art Department, says, “It’s a ‘10’ in every category, from a quantitative and a qualitative point of view. First, there is its unusual size; then its fantastic surface, which had a wonderful verdigris patina—that’s nature acting unimpeded on copper—as well as shadings of red paint and tiny traces of gilding.” Druckman also notes that the piece has “superb detail,” from the chief’s finely feathered headdress to the rakish flounces on his leather stockings. Indian weathervanes “are not uncommon,” she adds, “but the more exotic and developed figural forms, things with complexity, attract the most interest.”
While weathervanes were not unknown in Europe, according to Stacy Hollander, senior curator at the American Folk Art Museum in New York, “they became a distinctly American cultural expression.”. By the late 18th century, they were sprouting almost perfunctorily from church steeples and hipped barn roofs. At first, they often were carved in wood, but metals such as sheet iron and molded copper became the most common media by the 1850s, when mass production resulted in a cloudburst of popularity. The heyday lasted into the 1920s, propelled by such firms as J. L. Mott Iron Works Co. of New York and Chicago, the maker of the aforementioned chief, and the J. Howard Co. in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts, which produced pieces in copper combined with zinc that today have particularly lovely patinas varying in tone from blue-green to gray. Most vanes were originally painted or gilded, but climatic vagaries usually vanquished these materials to produce the weather-beaten surfaces that are now so desirable. Unlike overall condition and gracefulness of form, the imprimatur of a particular maker seldom affects the current price of a piece.
Lest the faint-hearted fear that a million-dollar budget is now needed to acquire an antique weathervane, it should be noted that in the Sotheby’s sale in which the Indian chief went on a rampage, three other pieces sold for $2,400, $6,600 and $9,000. They were, respectively, a 21 ½-inch standing rooster, a 32 ½-inch crowing rooster and a 35-inch-long running horse, all of molded copper. Another American Indian figure, from 1890, sold for a relatively reasonable $716,000.
This figure, also perched on an arrow, was bought by dealer Todd Prickett of C.L. Prickett in Yardley, Pennsylvania, who last summer had the distinction of snaring the 1882 locomotive weathervane that briefly held the auction record. Not mincing words, Prickett describes that piece, which quickly chugged its way into the hands of a private collector, as “one of the most incredible I’ve ever seen.” The robust, well-modeled 5-foot-long weathervane, he continues, “has a beautifully oxidized surface and was never altered or repaired.” Prickett, who usually stocks weathervanes ranging from $15,000 to “slightly north of $30,000,” notes that “locomotives are relatively rare compared to animals or patriotic motifs,” and that this engine, replete with its tender, once crested a railroad depot in Rhode Island. The quondam owners bought it in 1987 at Skinner Inc. in Bolton, Massachusetts, for $203,000.
Boston dealer Stephen Score, purchaser of the Goddess of Liberty that set a short-lived record at
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Indian chief weathervane, |
Score will be among the dealers featuring weathervanes this month at the American Antiques Show (Jan. 18–21), which benefits the American Folk Art Museum. Another participant will be Allan Katz Americana of Woodbridge, Connecticut, whose weathervanes, says Katz, “usually kick in at $15,000 to $20,000 and go up to the $150,000 to $200,000 range.” In addition, both Christie’s and Sotheby’s will have weathervanes in their Americana sales in New York, January 18 to 20 and January 19 to 21, respectively. While one may happen upon weathervanes for $2,000 to $5,000 at these events, says a source who requested anonymity, they “won’t have the integrity—the form and surface of the more sought-after and expensive examples.”
The inveterate collector will find still more outstanding weathervanes in New York this month at The Winter Antiques Show (Jan. 19–28). New Haven, Connecticut, dealer Fred Giampietro generally has two or three that might cost anywhere from $10,000 to well into the six figures, while New Hope, Pennsylvania, dealer Olde Hope Antiques Inc. expects to bring a handsomely crafted rooster weathervane, circa 1870–80. Of molded copper with cast-zinc feet, it has an alluring verdigris surface on its upper part and glowing remnants of the original gilding below. Priced at $68,000, it would probably impress even Picasso, who once observed that roosters “have always been seen, but never so well as in an American weathervane.”
Dick Kagan is an Art & Antiques New York correspondent.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
►Allan Katz Americana
Woodbridge, Conn.
203.393.9356
►American Folk Art Museum
New York
212.265.1040
www.folkartmuseum.org
►The American Antiques Show
New York
212.977.7170, ext. 319
www.folkartmuseum.org
►Christie’s New York
212.636.2000
www.christies.com
►C.L. Prickett
Yardley, Pa.
215.493.4284
www.clprickett.com
►Giampietro
New Haven, Conn.
203.787.3851
www.fredgiampietro.com
►Northeast Auctions
Portsmouth, N.H.
603.433.8400
www.northeastauctions.com
►Olde Hope Antiques Inc.
New Hope, Pa.
215.297.0200
►Skinner Inc.
Boston
978.779.6241
www.skinnerinc.com
►Sotheby’s New York
212.606.7000
www.sothebys.com
►Stephen Score
Boston
617.227.9192
►The Winter Antiques Show
New York
718.292.7392
www.winterantiquesshow.com