In early spring 2009 we were contacted by a representative of a gift committee from the town of Lawrence Massachusetts. The representative explained that the town was hoping to have an old Weathervane (discovered in a closet in one of the Town's municipal buildings) repaired to give to the town's Fire Chief who would soon be retiring. We explained that we would be happy to assist the committee in any way possible and that we could begin a preliminary review of the “repair” by receiving a number of detailed photos by e-mail. Shortly after that call we received the photos.

What we saw in the photos was a large Old Fire Truck with a Fireman holding the reigns to a team of horses. The verdigris patina was outstanding from what we could see. The figures were in excellent condition. However, one of the horses was detached. What we basically had observed, was a fantastic piece of Weathervane Art from perhaps the 1870-80’s.

We talked to the client about what it would take to get the piece back to full restoration (with hesitation) by explaining that if heat were applied to the piece the patina would be destroyed. We continued to relay a host of other concerns regarding the repair.
In order to be very clear about any undertaking on our part it would be best to do a physical inspection.
Fortunately the representative brought the Weathervane to us where we were able to have a good look.
The photo’s that had been sent did almost full justice to the glory of the weathervane.

We took a new set of photos and contacted Sotheby’s in New York to discuss dating the piece, the value of the piece, etc. Sotheby’s did not hesitate to call us right back. Nancy Druckman of Sotheby’s spoke with us and told us that pieces like this had within the past ten years at auction had gone in a range of $150,00- $300,000. She sent us a letter with other information, which was directly passed to our client.
One week later the client came back to pick up the weathervane. The committee made the decision not to do a restoration but to bring it to auction and use the proceeds from the sale to save two jobs in the town’s Fire Department earmarked as cuts in 2010.
Needless to say we were very glad to bring this information to our clients.

Below are pictures of the weathervane