The Year of the Horse
Celebrate the Lunar New Year today with our folk art weathervane!
Rare before the 1830s, the trotting horse became one of the most frequent subjects for weathervanes in the last half of the nineteenth century. The sport of racing trotters became popular in the 1840s, and most horse weathervanes were modeled after famous trotters. Almost every manufacturer of such weathervanes marketed a model commemorating Black Hawk, a well-known winner in the 1840s, and a famous stud in Vermont after his racing career ended.… This spirited anatomically detailed piece is a wooden model, or pattern, for making the hollow iron molds that were used to mass produce many copper vanes. It was probably made by Henry Leach, who carved original patterns for Cushing and White, weathervane manufacturers, based in Waltham, Massachusetts.
Source: Lynda Roscoe Hartigan. Made with Passion: The Hemphill Folk Art Collection in the National Museum of American Art (Washington, D.C. and London: National Museum of American Art with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990).
Pictured: Henry Leach, 1809–1885, Black Hawk Horse Weathervane Pattern, 1871–1872, carved and painted wood, 22 x 34 1/2 x 3 5/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson.
Celebrate the Lunar New Year today with our folk art weathervane!
Rare before the 1830s, the trotting horse became one of the most frequent subjects for weathervanes in the last half of the nineteenth century. The sport of racing trotters became popular in the 1840s, and most horse weathervanes were modeled after famous trotters. Almost every manufacturer of such weathervanes marketed a model commemorating Black Hawk, a well-known winner in the 1840s, and a famous stud in Vermont after his racing career ended.… This spirited anatomically detailed piece is a wooden model, or pattern, for making the hollow iron molds that were used to mass produce many copper vanes. It was probably made by Henry Leach, who carved original patterns for Cushing and White, weathervane manufacturers, based in Waltham, Massachusetts.