COLLECTIBLES : How to Avoid Weather-Vane Forgeries

Weather vanes have become a highly collectible form of folk art--to the point where there are stories of thieves roping them from helicopters. More agile thieves are apt to scramble up a ladder under cover of darkness to remove a valuable work of folk art from a rooftop.

The value of any weather vane will be influenced by its age, condition, design, craftsmanship and history.

All weather vane collectors face the problem that antique weather vanes are difficult to authenticate and easy to replicate. Some forgers have spent years tracking down original cast-iron molds to manufacture new weather vanes identical to those known to be more than 100 years old.

The most convincing forgers have learned to duplicate the patina found on authentic copper, zinc, iron and wooden weather vanes. Collectors must learn to distinguish between the patina that an antique has acquired naturally and one that has been chemically induced. Learning to look for normal wear versus wear that has been duplicated with steel wool is also important.

One area where many forgers stumble is the interior of a hollow form. Bright, shiny copper, aluminum and fresh solder are warning signals that you are holding a reproduction or, at best, a heavily restored antique.

The first step a collector must take is to learn as much as possible about the types of vanes he or she plans to collect. One of the best places to begin is a museum where period weather vanes are on display.

Weather vanes date back to ancient Greece. During the 9th Century, the Pope ordered that a metal or wooden rooster crown each church to remind the congregation of Peter’s betrayal of Christ--and the duty to attend Sunday Mass. These roosters developed into weather vanes, which became known as “weathercocks.”

In medieval England, the right to display a weather vane was reserved for manorial lords; in France, only a landowner who had served victoriously in battle could display his banner--a metal coat of arms--atop his chateau’s spire.

By the time the American colonies were settled, the weather vane had lost its association with the Catholic Church and European nobility. It was viewed as a decorative architectural element and a reliable means of forecasting the weather.

Thomas Jefferson at Monticello attached his weather vane to a pointer in the ceiling in the room directly below it so he would know the direction of the wind without going outdoors. After the Revolutionary War, President George Washington ordered a dove with an olive branch in its beak to top his home at Mount Vernon.

America’s first documented maker of weather vanes was Deacon Shem Drowne, who worked primarily in the Boston area during the first half of the 18th Century. Among his notable commissions were the copper grasshopper atop Boston’s Faneuil Hall, the copper Indian designed for Boston’s Province House, the banner weather vane for Boston’s Old North Church, and the crowing rooster now on First Church in Cambridge.

No collector should invest a great deal of money in a weather vane that comes without reliable documentation as to date of manufacture, original site, type of material and degree of restoration.