Item Details:

SERPENT WEATHERVANE

MAKER UNKNOWN

NORTH AMERICAN FOLK ART, circa 1850

Green-Painted Sheet Metal with Soldered Reinforcement and Mounting Bracket

Size (including Metal Stand): 19.25 x 14.5 in; 48.9 x 36.8 cm

Desirable example of a mid-19th century weathervane serpent form.

Mythologocal subjects such as mermaids, centaurs, and sea serpents were introduced into weathervane design during the nineteenth century, and many were later mass-produced from moulds by manufacturers.  This sheet-iron dragon is a wonderful example of the imagintive forms created by individual craftsmen.

Found in Maine in the 1980s, this weathervane is probably from the same hand as an almost-identical vane which is credited as originating in Quebec, now in the permanent collection of the Royal Ontario Museum, Canadiana Gallery (see photo below).  Reference: Bird, Michael, Canadian Folk Art - Old Ways in a New Land, (c) 1983 Oxford University Press Canada, page 39

Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey from whom the current owner obtained the work