AFA Summer 2021

Summer 52 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com Crafted by Shem Drowne (1683–1774) of Boston, Massachusetts, America’s first documented weathervane maker, this was the first rooster weathervane, or “weathercock,” known to have been made by an American rather than imported from Europe. Crafted for the New Brick Church on Hanover Street in Boston’s North End (where Drowne’s shop was located), the vane is more than five feet tall and wide. Dubbed “The Revenge Church” because it was built by dissenters of an existing church to protest a new minister, it is said that members chose a rooster to call attention to the Reverend Peter Thatcher’s first name and the biblical story of Peter’s betrayal of Jesus. Legend has it that “when the cock was placed upon the spindle, a merry fellow straddled over it and crowed three times to complete the ceremony.” In 1873, the vane was moved across the Charles River to top the First Church Congregational in Cambridge, where it can be seen today. Drowne’s best- known surviving vane is the grasshopper that still tops Faneuil Hall in Boston. This unique weathervane is documented in a letter from the makers, found folded up inside of the hollow center of the heart section, along with several Boston newspapers from June 1839. The letter states that “This heart and hand was made by Ezra Ames and painted by Bela Dexter [and] it is destined to be a weathervane for Read Taft of Roxbury.” Taft was the proprietor of a Roxbury hotel where this vane may have served as a welcoming sign. Fig. 1: Marian Page, Weather Vane: Rooster, ca. 1939. Watercolor and graphite on paper rendering of actual vane. 13 ⁄ x 13¾ inches. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Index of American Design (1943.8.16458). Fig. 2: Ezra Ames and Bela Dexter, Heart and Hand, Chelsea, Massachusetts, 1839. Carved white pine with original paint, 21 x 39 in. Private collection. Photograph courtesy David A. Schorsch and Eileen M. Smiles.