THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 11, 1996 TAG: 9608130475
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANN BARRY BURROWS, SPECIAL TO HOME & GARDEN
LENGTH: 125 lines
CALL IT NOSTALGIA for a less technological society, call it art appreciation, if you like; the popularity of weather vanes stands high, undiminished by time. In fact, the market for these sturdy metal pointers is riding a fresh wind.
Weather vanes, long available to home builders, now are showing up on the retail market. Gift shops, especially those that trade in garden implements, are selling them, and home magazines are giving mail-order companies and weather vane craftsmen the exposure they need to succeed.
Decorators seem to have taken note. Those who sell weather vanes say the last five years have been the best in memory, and sales for this summer might break all records.
The intriguing thing about weather vanes is that most of the people buying them now don't really care which way the wind is blowing. The vanes are as likely to turn up on a pole in the garden as bolted to the roof. The new miniature varieties are objects d'art for the fireplace mantle.
Wherever they are mounted, weather vanes are durable and beautiful features of home, hearth or garden.
Chester Shaffer, a merchant in the Pungo area of Virginia Beach, has been selling weather vanes for more than years. He says he can vouch for their durability - he has never heard of a customer having problems or needing a replacement. Normally, he said, the house will fall down before the weather vane breaks.
A weather vane turns freely on an upright rod. The wind spins its arrow until it catches both sides of the arrow's wide end equally. Thus, it points in the direction from which the wind comes. Also called a wind vane or a weathercock, it is one of the oldest weather instruments, dating to before 50 B.C.
These days the weather vane commands attention not for what it says about the weather, but what it reveals about the occupants of the house over which it may preside. Vanes now come in nearly all imaginable shapes and attitudes, and the list is growing.
A dolphin reigns over a rental in the North End of Virginia Beach, and a sailboat rests on a deck railing near the resort strip. An eagle flies high above a cottage turret in Nags Head, and a fish is at home on a stand in a garden overlooking Broad Bay.
At The Weekend Gardener in Chesapeake, a garden gift shop, the list includes whales, fish, egrets, ducks, pigs and the traditional rooster. At Fran's Antiques in Pungo, a wagon in the front yard carries no less than 20 varieties: Indian, duck, horse, dog, horse-drawn fire engine, whale, reindeer, golfer and more.
Few other stores in South Hampton Roads carry them, although there are several mail-order catalogs that provide selections.
Sales depend not only on the variety of weather vanes, but in suggesting creative places to put them. A mail-order company called Good Directions uses this slogan: ``Look what's coming off the roof.'' Their brochure suggests planting weather vanes in pots for the yard, and the company sells stands that fit in terra-cotta pots.
Good Directions sells vanes in the shape of the common rooster as well as a grasshopper, whale, sailboat, pig, sailfish, bass fish, cherub, eagle, Model T Ford, airplane, skier, golfer, locomotive, horse, arrow, dove, witch, horse and sulky, country carriage, hummingbird, deer, osprey, duck, loon, turkey, moose, snow goose, fox and Indian.
The rooster remains popular, despite the new competition. Dot Cooper of Virginia Beach chose to stick with tradition when she bought a rooster vane as a Father's Day gift for her husband, Worth.
``It looks great,'' she said. It took just under an hour to mount the vane on the summer house in their backyard, and Dot Cooper said they enjoy seeing it from the pool, lawn and even indoor rooms such as the den.
Despite the rich tradition and durability of weather vanes, some decorators say it is hard to find a true antique. Sloan DeWeese, a Virginia Beach antique dealer, recently supplied a customer with one that was ``maybe 30 years old,'' he said.
Weather vanes have historically been more popular in rural areas, DeWeese said, but supply houses are hoping to change that by furnishing not only roof mounts, but deck attachments and base stands for the garden.
``They are more for decoration today than they are for any wind direction purposes,'' DeWeese said. ``The look is quaint and primitive and early American in design.''
He, however, prefers them on rooftops. ``A weather vane is a rooftop ornament, certainly, not to be confused with the whirligig which is at ground or eye level.''
Prices vary, but the reproductions at The Weekend Gardener in Chesapeake are typical. They make a tidy sale, at about $150 for a basic model or $300 for the artistry of, say, a heron leaping into flight.
Usually weather vanes are made of brass and mounted on steel rods. The most important attachment is the copper spacer ball that allows the weather vane to spin with the wind. The directional finder with letters indicating north, east, south and west is often made of brass. Adjustable roof mounts usually are aluminum, and base stands typically are made of cast iron.
``You can get the polished copper for indoors or the green patina of weathered copper for outdoors,'' said Sharon Ewell, owner of The Weekend Gardener. She said most of her customers are buying garden poles, which cost $25, and opting for egrets, cranes, herons and, most popular, a duck coming in for a landing. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
DREW WILSON/The Virginian-Pilot
An eagle presides over Chris Tames' Nags Head home on Soundside
Road.
RICHARD L. DUNSTON/The Virginian-Pilot
Reproduction weather vanes come in nearly every shape and attitude
imaginable, usually made of brass and mounted on a steel rod with a
copper spacer ball.
Fran's Antiques in the Pungo section of Virginia Beach displays more
than 20 styles of weather vanes in its front yard, including a
classy horse and buggy.
Photos
RICHARD L. DUNSTON/The Virginian-Pilot
The Weekend Gardener in Chesapeake carries a variety of reproduction
weather vanes, some portraying hobbies such as flying and horse
riding.
Graphic
IF YOU'RE INTERESTED
Some mail-order resources for weather vanes are:
Good Directions, (800) 852-3002.
The Outhouse, (800) 346-7678.
Annapolis Weathervanes, (410) 757-5637. by CNB