AFA Summer 2021

2021 Antiques & Fine Art 53 Beginning in the Middle Ages, Christian churches in Europe were often topped with symbolic weathervanes. The practice was brought to America by early settlers from the British Isles and the Netherlands. The use of the figure of Gabriel, the only angel named in the Bible, became popular in America during the great religious revival of the 1830s and 1840s. The body of this weathervane is sheet copper while the horn is three- dimensional. The vane was made for the Universalist Church in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and later moved to another church in the town. When taken down, a note inside the horn identified the makers. A nearly identical example attributed to the same makers topped a Belfast, Maine, church and is now in a private collection. Fig. 3: Gould and Hazlett, Archangel Gabriel, Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1840. Gold leaf on iron and copper, 28½ x 71½ x 6 in. Collection of Kendra and Allan Daniel. Photograph by George Kamper.