It was about 1984 when I bought the running horse weathervane on top of the barn at Stone Hearth Inn. I always hired Peanut Gordon to go up on the roof and retrieve the vanes. I don’t like heights. This turned out to be an interesting vane to remove.
Weathervanes have a vertical and hollow tube under the horizontal rod the vane rests on. This hollow tube slides over a round post that extends up from the cardinals. The vane would easily swivel on the round post as the wind blew. To remove a vane all you have to do is lift up the vane. Not so, on the Stone Hearth vane. It had rusted some.
Peanut climbed up into the cupola from inside. Then he came out one of the louvered doors. I was really nervous on this job. Peanut took a plank and placed it across two of the cupola ridge poles. Now he could get up there, but couldn’t lift the rusted vane up. Peanut took two five-gallon plastic pails and placed them upside down on the plank. Now Peanut stood on top of the two pails. You can imagine how the pails wobbled.
Unable to lift the vane off the post, Peanut used a hacksaw and sawed off the cardinal post. All the while, he wobbled around on the buckets. Today they have some sort of a winged griffin for a vane.
Vane history
Factory weathervanes began to appear prior to the Civil War. There were a number of New England makers, including J. Howard & Co., A.L. Jewell & Co., and Cushing & White. In 1868, Josephus Harris of Brattleboro established a vane factory in Boston he named Boston Weathervanes, and later renamed Harris & Co. Of course there were other makers.
Themes
Weathervanes were produced in many forms. The most common are eagle vanes. The eagle is our national symbol. Chester Town Hall has a large eagle vane, just restored and again keeping watch over the Depot.
Horses are the next most widely produced vane. Horses come in dozens of designs: running horse, index horse, jumping horse, and horse with sulky. Some of these vanes were fashioned after famous horses of the day – Dexter, Black Hawk, and others.
Bulls and cows, pigs, Lady Liberty, roosters and hens, even fish were created. The buyer of a vane purchased a vane that reflected his livelihood. These were trade signs. Dairy farms would have a cow, cattle dealers would have a bull, horse dealers a horse, sometimes a famous Morgan.
A junk yard story
As I have said before, my memory fades with time. I don’t recall where or how I learned this, but I know it is true. It was in the 1910s or early ‘20s, when, I think, Cushing & White went out of business. All of their holdings were sold at auction, including vane molds and designs. A local junk man bought the molds and designs, but never did anything with them. Upon his death in the 1950s, these molds and designs were sold again.
This time, an antiques dealer bought the lot. He was now able to recreate these old vanes almost as good as the originals. I say “almost” because the handwork fitting parts together was not as well done as the originals. Today these vanes have been kicking around for almost 75 years. They have taken on a patina, and look pretty good.
In the early 1980s reproduction copper vanes came in from Pakistan for cheap money. They are very easy to spot today. You could buy a running horse vane for $25. I bought several. Sometimes the seller would only sell if I could put another vane in its place. In North Springfield on Main Street is one of my reproduction vanes atop a barn. This is not far from the post office.
Summary
In short, today I see many bad vanes as I travel around. If you choose to invest, do your homework. A fake vane is worth no more than a fake diamond.
This week’s old saying: “You don’t need a weatherman to see which way the wind blows.”