Artifacts

Object Details

Collection Creator

Downtown Gallery

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Downtown Gallery records

Downtown Gallery records / Series 6: Miscellaneous Material

Sponsor

Funding for the processing, microfilming and digitization of the microfilm of this collection was provided by the Henry Luce Foundation. Glass plate negatives in this collection were digitized in 2019 with funding provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee.

Date

1883, 1954-1955, undated

Archival Repository

Archives of American Art

Identifier

AAA.downgall, Subseries 6.3

Type

Archival materials

Collection Citation

Downtown Gallery records, 1824-1974, bulk 1926-1969. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Arrangement note

Weather vane molds are followed by supporting documentation, then awards.

Collection Rights

The Downtown Gallery records are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Prior to publishing information regarding sales transactions, researchers are responsible for obtaining written permission from both artist and purchaser involved. If it cannot be established after a reasonable search whether an artist or purchaser is living, it can be assumed that the information may be published sixty years after the date of sale.

Scope and Contents note

This subseries contains weather vane artifacts and related material, in addition to two awards. Only the supporting documentation for weather vanes is microfilmed. Weather vane artifacts include several hand-carved wooden weather vane molds of L. W. Cushing & Sons, a prominent nineteenth-century manufacturer, along with a copy of the firm's catalog. During the 1940s, Mrs. Halpert noticed an influx of weather vanes on the market, purported to be nineteenth century and priced accordingly; she doubted their authenticity and searched for the source of the questionable antiques. Molds for those weather vanes and others were discovered in 1953 in the yard of a Chelsea, Massachusetts, scrap metal dealer. Mrs. Halpert learned the dealer, who had acquired them from the last surviving owner of L. W. Cushing & Sons, was the innocent source of the "authentic" weather vanes sold in Boston, Maine, and New York. Mrs. Halpert collected the wood and iron molds, wooden models, and tools, and after a year of organizing and assembling the weather vane components, the American Folk Art Gallery arranged for authorized reproductions of the six most aesthetically important models, each in a limited edition of fifty. The wooden weather vane molds found here are rare. While copper weather vanes were created by pressing sheet copper directly onto the molds or hollowed-out forms, wood was not durable enough for repeated use and popular demand soon required mass-production. These highly detailed molds are in fragile condition. Most are incomplete forms such as the heads, legs or torso of various animals; there are also parts of jockeys, wheels, and Columbia (Lady Liberty). Most were identified and numbered by the American Folk Art Gallery. Supporting documentation consists of L. W. Cushing & Sons Catalogue No. 9, circa 1883; a nineteenth-century printed sheet of weather vane designs; and three display boards containing photographs and printed matter regarding weather vane exhibitions and reproductions. The trophy found in this subseries is the First Annual International Silver Prize Medal trophy awarded by the University of Connecticut to Edith Halpert for distinguished contribution to the arts. Established with a grant from the International Silver Company of Connecticut, the award coincided with an exhibit of works from the Downtown Gallery held at the university in 1968. The medal found here is undidentified.

Collection Restrictions

The microfilm of this collection has been digitized and is available online via the Archives of American Art website.

Record ID

ebl-1562711008894-1562711009334-0

Metadata Usage

CC0