Forecasting the Weather in Vane

 

QUESTION: I’ve noticed that old weathervanes are bringing some pretty high prices at high-end Americana antique shows and in online antique auctions. Why are they so valuable? When I was a kid, my family lived in a rural area with weathervanes on a lot of the barns. What is the origin of the weathervane? And if I find one that isn’t too expensive, should I be concerned that it isn’t restored?

ANSWER: It doesn’t really matter how old a weathervane is, as long as it’s not new. Old weather vanes atop old barns are an American tradition and today are worth a good deal of money, even if they’re weathered.

Weathervanes have been blowing into the wind for as long as farmers and sailors needed to know the direction of the breeze, but they have traditionally performed another function as well. A weathervane was often an emblem that showed the profession of the person who mounted it---a dory for a fisherman, a cow for a dairy farmer, a locomotive for a railroad engineer.

The earliest known weather vane, dating to 48 B.C.E., was an image of Triton—a Greek god with the head and torso of a man and the tail of a fish—mounted on The Tower of the Winds in Athens.

Weather vanes didn’t gain popularity until English nobles during the Middle Ages flew banners from their castle walls emblazoned with their coats of arms. After the Normans conquered England, these "fanes,” as the banners came to be known, were made of iron with designs cut into them. Since what wouldn't bend might break, fane makers soon rigged them to turn with the breeze. By the English Renaissance, the fane had become a vane, a simpler and more functional device affixed atop a merchant's shop as often as on a knight's battlement.

The colonists who settled America brought their traditions with them, including the weathervane. While the first colonists crudely cut vanes from wood, iron ones could be seen topping several Puritan meeting houses by the late 17th century. Boston's Old State House, erected in 1713, had a swallow-tailed vane with an arrow, and by 1740, America's first craftsman of weathervanes, Shem Drowne, had begun fashioning copper vanes for Boston's public buildings.

Prior to the 1850s, blacksmiths created most weathervanes. And though they devoted considerable skill and imagination to them, forging iron vanes or beating them out of copper was largely a sideline, something a blacksmith did on request.

Blacksmiths in coastal New England towns, where watching the wind has always been vital, made vanes in the shape of ships for sea captains, cod and flounder vanes for fishermen, and leviathans for the whale hunters on Nantucket and at New Bedford. Inland, farmers sawed crude wooden vanes in the shapes of plows and farm animals, or found a blacksmith who could fashion more sophisticated weathervanes for their barns.

After the 1850s, metalworkers like Alvin Jewell, of Waltham, Massachusetts, began manufacturing copper vanes using templates and molds, a process that was faster than the ancient repousse method, in which they pounded copper into the desired shape. Speedier manufacturing processes meant lower costs, and Jewell found that his patterns sold quite well through mail-order catalogs.

L.W. Cushing, perhaps the best-known weathervane manufacturer of the 19th century. He added them to a collection of over 100 silhouette and full-bodied vanes in his catalog. Other weather vane companies soon opened for business, including J.W. Fiske and E.G. Washburne, both of New York City, and Harris & Company of Boston.

It was during the height of the Victorian Era when weather vanes became one of the most sought after items. They began appearing on everything from stables to gazebos. Prices ranged from $15 to $400 for the weathervane, its brass turning rod, a copper ball, and a set of brass cardinals indicating the points of the compass.

The boom in weathervanes didn't last long, only 50 years or so, but during that time people bought hundreds of designs throughout the country, including fire engines, Statues of Liberty, clipper ships, river steamers, cannons, even sea monsters and dragons. Still, the traditional designs—roosters, horses, and other animals—remained the most popular.

By the early 20th century, changing tastes and simpler home design—particularly the decline of the cupola—caused a decline in weathervane popularity.           

People began to be collect weather vanes as folk art about 40 years ago. Many sought vanes made by factories that originally sold them through catelogs, so handmade vanes weren’t even an issue. The highest amount ever paid for a weather vane was for a factory-made, copper Indian chief vane from 1900 that sold for $5.8 million at Sotheby’s in October 2006. Others have sold for prices from four figures on up.

Collectors prefer scarce and unusual weathervane forms, such as mermaids, cars, trains, and firemen. The most common ones, however, are horses, roosters, and cows which tend to fetch lower prices.

The majority of collectors like old copper vanes that have a green or verdigris patina which helps to date it.  But the biggest problem are the vanes made now from original molds from defunct factories. Though manufacturers generally don’t conceal the replicas’ origins, subsequent sellers often do.

The weathervanes that command the highest prices have not been restored. They have a patina—often noticeably different on one side thanks in part to prevailing winds and decades of exposure to sun, sleet, rain, snow and birds.

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A 1950s World in Miniature

QUESTION:  My Grandmother had a village of Plasticville that we continue to put up each and every year.  I would like to add to it, but I don't know how to judge the scale of what I have compared to what is available to buy.  Can you tell me more about it and can you give me any guidance?

ANSWER: Except for the flag and Mom’s apple pie, there’s probably nothing more all-American than Plasticville, USA—America of the 1950s anyway. Baby boomers recall their delight as they watched a toy train chug around under the Christmas tree. And in the middle of the track were plastic buildings that helped create the illusion of a little town. It sound like you’re continuing that tradition.

Plasticville is a brand of plastic toy train building sold in the United States, made by formerly Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based Bachmann Industries since 1947.At that time, the company began making small plastic fences for people to use to surround the displays under their Christmas trees. 

By 1950, Bachman added a variety of small accessories—trees and bushes, a foot bridge, a wishing well, a trellis—to its plastic fences, as well as a brown rustic fence and a picket fence. Before then, the firm sold its fencing in nondescript packaging. But after expanding its line of accessories, it needed to link the components. The key, executives knew, was a name, so they decided on  “Plasticville U.S.A.”

At that time, many Americans looked upon plastic as a symbol of progress. They also yearned for a simpler, rural past, when change was slower. Marketers at Bachmann, sensitive to this wave of nostalgia, added "ville" to the name of their new line in order to tap into the lingering sentimentality.

With the success of its first items, Bachman added a Cape Cod house, yard pump, and birdbath. They stamped each piece with the word “Plasticville” or the letters “BB” on a banner within a circle. Also available was a barn with a silo, roof ventilators and a weathervane. Bachmann then released two versions of a country church. All were easy to build, came apart, and only cost at most a dollar. Bachman loosely based its Plasticville buildings on "S" guage with "O" guage doors and windows so that they could be used with either scale trains.

By Christmas 1950, Bachmann offered a white and red grocery store, plus a gas station molded in similar colors. Especially striking were the window inserts depicting details that enhanced the look of both items. A new fire house completed the current line.



Over the next several years, the firm added all sorts of buildings to its Plasticville lineup. A new trolley-style dinner appeared in 1952, as well as other types of businesses----a supermarket, hardware store, drug store, and a 5 and 10—in 1953. The following year, Bachman added a fast food establishment called the Frosty Bar. All of these buildings reflected the rapid growth of suburbs in the Northeast.

The first church in Plasticville was a small white one with a gray roof, introduced in 1953, which came with paper inserts that simulated stained glass windows. As the suburbs grew, so did the Plasticville line. In 1954, Bachman added a New England ranch and a two-story colonial, both common in new post-war housing developments. Both of these came in a variety of color combinations to encourage buyers to purchase more than one.

Community buildings, also added in1953, included a hospital, complete with appropriate furnishings, a post office, an airport, and an airplane hangar.

Right from the beginning, the toy railroads under the Christmas tree demanded specialty structures. First came a station platform molded in light gray or brown plastic and featuring a brown or green roof and a small sign identifying the locale as Plasticville. A manually operated crossing gate with a white arm and a black or red base came next. The most impressive newcomer was a suburban station, with a brown platform and roof and trim in light gray, brown, or green.

By 1954, the toy trains graduated to model railroad layouts and Bachman expanded its railroad buildings to include a switch tower, plus a black signal bridge. To this, the company added a black trestle bridge, a larger Union Station, a water tank and loading platform.

Specialty buildings like a tan factory with gray or brown roof, a smokestack, and water tower, plus a red and white TV station came in 1957. All together, Bachman produced 104 different items in its Plasticville, U.S.A. line. And while the company had expanded its line of plastic buildings to cover just about every type of structure to be found in a small town, it would take another 20 years before anyone began collecting them.

Variations in common buildings can drive up the value. The common Plasticville one-story ranch house sells for about $5 while a variation using dark blue plastic sells for as much as $200. Larger buildings like the hospital and airport can go for much more.

To learn about Plasticville’s full story, read “Collecting Plasticville, U.S.A.” in #TheAntiquesAlmanac.

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Mementos of Places Visited

QUESTION: My grandad traveled a lot for business, and from everywhere he went, he brought back a miniature replica of a famous building. By the time he died, he had amassed over 100 of these tacky souvenirs. And now I have them. To me, they’re just that, tacky souvenirs, but to him I’m sure they brought back memories of the places he had visited. What can you tell me about such replicas? How did they get started? Are they worth anything?

ANSWER: Replicas of souvenir buildings have been around since Victorian times. They fill the shelves of tourist-trap souvenir shops all over the world, lined up like soldiers waiting for a command to go to war. I’m sure you’ve asked yourself who would buy such tacky items? The answer, believe it or not, is lots of people. And their popularity seems to be on the upswing.

Like the lost city of Atlantis rising slowly from beneath the sea, long-forgotten souvenir buildings are now emerging from cellars, closets and attics. Souvenir buildings have attracted a diverse following among designers, architects, history buffs, lawyers, and ordinary collectors. These little structures, singly or in groups, provide a rich treasure-trove of memories. And this, after all, is one of the basic functions of a souvenir.

A souvenir serves as a reminder of an experience, place, or culture. In French, the word means “to remember.” Whatever the object—whether a building, a plate with a picture on it, an ashtray, or a fan—it evokes a memory that’s often supplemented by a personal story or recollection.

Building replicas are just one of thousands of souvenir items which travelers have brought back home over the years. They rage in size from one to ten inches high and  include famous structures such as the Colosseum in Rome and obscure ones like the Buffalo Savings and Loan in upstate New York. Although metal is the preferred medium for most collectors, souvenir buildings have been produced in almost every conceivable material, including cast iron, pot metal, sterling silver, silver gilt, pottery, pewter, brass, plastic, and cast resin. The last is sometimes painted and sometimes “metalized” in brass, silver, or copper.

The tradition of collecting miniature buildings goes back to Victorian times when travelers on the European Grand Tour would purchase models as mementos of their journeys. These were usually recognizable landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Leaning Tower in Pisa. Such a replica made a nice ornament or present and served as a reminder that the traveler had "been abroad.”

Ever since, travelers to Europe have been returning with small churches, castles, Roman gates, triumphal arches, commemorative columns, basilicas, bullfight arenas, and so on. Because of Europe's bloody history, war monuments to the fallen or to the victorious make up an entire subcategory of historic interest.

In fact, it’s possible to collect souvenir buildings and monuments that trace Napoleon’s march across Europe, beginning with a replica of Napoleon’s Column in the Place Vendome in Paris, which commemorates his victory over the Austrians and Russians at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805.

But most people are more familiar with the little replicas of the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty that marked many a family’s first trip to New York City. Other grander structures include cathedrals and basilicas all across Europe. Pilgrims to these religious centers have purchased tiny replicas ever since they first became available.

Another category would include buildings from World's Fairs and Expositions: the Christopher Columbus monument from the International Exposition of 1888 in Barcelona, the Atomium from the Brussel’s World’s Fair in 1958, and the Eiffel Tower from the Paris World's Fair of 1889—perhaps the third most popular replica after the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty.

Collectors have created many categories to help them sort through the thousands of souvenir buildings and monuments on the market. Most acquire a jumble of all sorts of buildings, monuments, and "does-this-really-count-as-architecture" replicas, such as a metal miniature of Mt. Rushmore.

The beginning of souvenir building popularity began in the U.S. at the Philadelphia Centennial in 1876. Three versions of Independence Hall, each one a different size, were available at the fair. Today, these command prices of several thousand dollars each. Independence Hall has also been reproduced in red and white plastic, in an aluminum-like alloy, and, most recently, in pewter.

The next big date was 1888 and the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. Replicas of the statue were made and sold to help-raise money for the funding of the base. The elegant bronze castings known as The "Bertholdi model," named after Miss Liberty's sculptor„ became available at that time and have since become both scarce and pricey. For the rest of us, millions of Statues of Liberty have been churned out since then, making Miss Liberty one of the most popular miniature monuments ever produced.

Because there are so many souvenir buildings on the market, both old and new, collectors don’t usually have to pay too much for them. This makes these tacky souvenirs an ideal collectible for anyone who’s on a budget. But even if a person overpays for a replica of the Parthenon, it will still cost less than round-trip airfare to Athens.