AFA Summer 2021

Summer 60 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com This unique and vastly oversized representation of a local shorebird species was made for the Curlew Bay Club in Seaville, New Jersey. The vane topped a two-story barn behind the clubhouse through the 1940s. Clubhouses and other sporting venues were often sites for thematic weathervanes that signaled the building’s purpose. Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom, was adopted by American revolutionaries such as Paul Revere and Thomas Paine; it became one of the United States’ most enduring symbols, depicted on currency and stamps as well as in paintings and sculptures. New York harbors’ Statue of Liberty would inspire many further iterations of Liberty’s personification in American visual culture, following its delivery from France in 1885 and its dedication in 1886. The J. L. Mott Iron Works was founded in 1828 by Jordan Lawrence Mott (1799–1866). His small iron works, located in the South Bronx, grew into a major industrial center and built him a fortune. His son, J. L. Mott, Jr. (1829–1915), expanded the business to include, among other things, “vanes, bannerets, and finials.” In an 1892 catalogue, in addition to usual and unusual horses, he also produced a number of gods and goddesses as well as contemporary figures such as baseball batters and female tennis players. Fig. 13: Curlew, Artist unidentified, Seaville, New Jersey, ca. 1874. Gold leaf on sheet metal with iron straps, 46⅛ x 92¼ x ⅜ in. American Folk Art Museum; Gift of Alice Kaplan, trustee (1977–1989) (2001.3.2). Photograph by John Bigelow Taylor. Fig. 12: Liberty Enlightening the World , J. L. Mott Iron Works, New York and Chicago, ca. 1885–92. Molded copper, gilded. H. 53 in. Collection of Donna and Marvin Schwartz. Photograph Courtesy of Sotheby’s, Inc. © 2020.