Featured Lightning rod / weathervane 1880

Main thing to add: callout to @Ghopper1924 who lives and breathes Victorian.

 

Me, too. The size of the numbers would hardly be visible, if at all, on top of a large -possibly multistory- building so as an address number it would be useless/redundant.
I love it!

 

Hey Dan:
I echo the enthusiastic responses you’ve been getting. Very cool weathervane! Oh, and I also used to live in Brooklyn.

I see no reason to believe that your piece isn’t exactly what you think it is. Looks to be wrought iron, the size is way too big for most rural applications - which is where most weathervanes that I’ve seen come from - and the styling looks right for 1880. I don’t see any insulators or places for them that would make me think that it’s also a lightning rod, although as the building’s high point it probably would have been connected to a conductor to discharge a strike into the ground.

In short, I could easily see this capping a Victorian-era prison building. So: fun purchase, I hope you’ve got a good place for it!

 

99% of the weathervanes seen in the marketplace are reproductions. It is refreshing to see the real deal here. Likely unique.

 

Thank you for all the thoughtful responses . Based on the collection it came from and having now gotten it in my possession , there is no doubt this is the genuine article .

 

@komokwa, maybe it was meant to intimidate prisoners from trying to escape!!!!

 

on the roof ?