Silhouettes In The Sky: The Art Of The Weathervane

SHELBURNE, VT.

:Until a few weeks ago, it had been secured in a police evidence locker in New Haven, Conn., for the better part of a year. But since May 1, a 6-foot-long Angel Gabriel weathervane has been back in the public eye, the centerpiece of "Silhouettes in The Sky: The Art of the Weathervane."

On view through October 31, the Shelburne Museum's summer exhibition gathers 50 high flyers from a collection assembled mainly by the late Electra Havemeyer Webb, who founded Shelburne Museum in 1947. Webb, who died in 1960, bought most of the examples late in her life from Edith Halpert, Adele Earnest and other leading dealers of the day.

One of the best stashes in the country, Shelburne's weathervanes are rarely displayed as a group. Selected highlights were shown together between 1987 and 1990, when "An American Sampler: Folk Art From The Shelburne Museum" opened its seven-museum tour at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. It has been more than a decade since Shelburne mounted a special exhibition on the subject, said senior curator Jean Burks, who organized the show.

While many of Shelburne's best weathervanes are well known to collectors, the Gabriel is largely a new discovery. Called "Old Gabriel" by townsfolk, it was made in 1822 in Crown Point, N.Y., 37 miles from Shelburne on the western shore of Lake Champlain, by blacksmith Henry Forster. The iron for the piece was probably mined nearby. Forster's design is unusual: though the angel is two-dimensional, its trumpet was modeled in the round and its wings, which span more than 3 feet, are attached at a 45-degree angle.

Until the theft of "Old Gabriel" in November 2003, when thieves replaced the original with a clumsy copy, the weathervane had flown above White Church and its two predecessors for 181 years. As reported in Antiques and The Arts Weeklyat the time, the weathervane was recovered in June 2005 when Mike Garlenski of Ridgefield, Conn., offered the sculpture to New Haven dealer Fred Giampietro, who recognized the stolen piece and immediately notified police. Giampietro had previously offered White Church Association $100,000 for the work.

Garlenski at the time told Antiques and The Arts Weeklythat he inadvertently acquired the Gabriel after buying an eagle weathervane on eBay from a seller who arranged to meet him in Port Jervis, N.Y. The seller offered Garlenski the Gabriel on consignment. A year after "Old Gabriel's" recovery, federal authorities are still investigating the theft, Investigator Marshall Rocque of the New York State Police Barracks in Westport, N.Y., said recently. Several other weathervanes were also reported missing along the New York-Vermont border in late 2003.

"We are extremely fortunate to have this magnificent weathervane on view," says Burks, who was contacted by Joan Hunsdon, who offered to loan "Old Gabriel" to the Shelburne Museum. Hunsdon is Crown Point's historian and an officer of both the White Church Association and the Penfield Museum, which documents the town's Nineteenth Century role in the iron industry. The sculpture is currently a highlight among the several dozen Eighteenth through Twentieth Century weathervanes on view.