AFA Summer 2021

George Washington commissioned this vane for the cupola of his mansion and chose its subject to symbolize his hopes for the new nation he would soon be leading as its first president. He provided specific instructions to the maker, writing to the architect Joseph Rakestraw that he “should like to have a bird . . . with an olive branch in its Mouth. The bird need not be large (for I do not expect that it will traverse with the wind and therefore may receive the real shape of a bird, with spread wings).” The vane is depicted above the cupola in Edward Savage’s circa 1787–1792 painting The West Front of Mount Vernon. Rakestraw fabricated the vane in Philadelphia in the late summer of 1787, while Washington was presiding over the Constitutional Convention. This original vane was replaced with an exact replica in 1993 and is now exhibited in the Donald W. Reynolds Museum at Mount Vernon. It was regilded and painted after it came inside for the last time. 2021 Antiques & Fine Art 55 From at least 1850 to 1867, Jonathan Howard (1806–1889), his younger brother Charles Howard III (1817–1907), and Jonathan’s son John Williams Howard (1836–1865) apparently worked in various combinations in the manufacture of weathervanes in West Bridgewater, about twenty-fives miles south of Boston. By 1856, Charles returned to farming and the company changed from J. & C. Howard & Co., to J. Howard & Co., responsible for this large deer vane. Although it is not known who designed them or carved their patterns, the Howards’ products have long been considered the most elegant and refined of all manufactured weathervanes. This “Large Deer” vane is included in J. Howard’s price list of circa 1856, along with a small “swelled” deer. Large examples like this one wholesaled for seventeen dollars each. The vane was regilded long ago and its overall gold finish is close to the way it would have looked when it came out of the Howard shop. Fig. 5: Dove of Peace, Joseph Rakestraw, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1787. Copper, iron, lead, gilt, and paint, 34¾ x 42½ in. Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, transferred to the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association through the generosity of John Augustine Washington III, 1860 (w-2492). Fig. 6: Large Deer, J. Howard & Co., West Bridgewater, Massachusetts, ca. 1856–67. Molded copper and cast zinc, gilded 35 x 25 x 6 in. Collection of Kendra and Allan Daniel Photograph by John Currens.