Fox Weathervane

Date1883-1900

Attributed to L. W. Cushing & Sons (active 18[72?]-1933)

MediumCopper, brass, gilt, and paint

DimensionsOverall: 8 1/4 x 22 9/16 x 2 3/8in. (21 x 57.3 x 6cm)

Credit LineGift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller

Object number1933.800.6

DescriptionThe weathervane is a full-bodied figure of a running fox with fore and rear legs fully extended in a running stride. The fur is depicted by incised modeling.
Label Text"Full-bodied" weather vanes consist of bilaterally symmetrical halves that were individually stamped into shape with a drop hammer, then soldered together to form the whole. The linear detail and marked dimensionality of such pieces must have seemed exceptionally sophisticated compared with simpler, flat, sheet iron weather vanes, whose fabrication required far less specialized equipment.
Foxes were relatively rarely produced. The firm of Cushing & White (established by Leonard Wareham Cushing and Stillman White) offered a vane that combined this fox with a hound chasing it as early as 1868. In 1883, the sucessor firm of L. W. Cushing & Sons advertised the fox alone for $15 and the combined fox and hound for $35. Weather vanes were commonly gilded, and this fox retains faint traces of that original finish.
Cushing's journals reveal that he employed Boston carver Henry Leach (active 1847-ca. 1871) to create many animal patterns, including the original fox and hound in 1869 or 1870.

ProvenanceMiss Helen Shevlin, Cambridge, Mass. Purchased through Rhode Island School of Design for Abby Aldrich Rockefeller's collection. Given to C. W. F.