THE NATIONAL SPORTING LIBRARY NEWSLETTER,
Winter 2002

SPORTING SILHOUETTES: THE PAUL MELLON WEATHER VANE COLLECTION
AT THE NATIONAL SPORTING LIBRARY
Lisa Campbell, Publications Director

Sporting Silhouettes: The Paul Mellon Weather Vane Collection at the National Sporting Library will open March 4 in the NSL's Forrest E. Mars Sr. Exhibit Hall.

Paul Mellon (1907-1999) was one of the 20th century's most important international collectors of fine paintings, sculpture and sporting art. Volumes have been published regarding the scope and content of his art collections. But there has been little recognition of his magnificent collection of weather vanes. This collection, bequeathed to the NSL, contains examples that are among the most highly desirable in existence.

"Mr. Mellon loved the sculptural form of the weather vanes," said Beverly Carter, who was Mellon's administrative assistant and is executor of his estate. "He used most of these pieces in the same way that he used the sculpture from his collection, displaying them on tabletops or on freestanding pedestals throughout the Brick House."

In 1999, the NSL received ten outstanding examples from Mellon's estate. Displayed throughout the Library since the new building opened, they adorn the foyer, the Founders' room and the reading rooms. One other, a hound chasing a fox, was bequeathed to the NSL with a life estate to his widow, Rachel "Bunny" Mellon who still resides at Rokeby. The jumping horse on the cupola of the Library's roof was given by Mellon prior to his death to celebrate the opening of the new NSL building.

Most of the pieces in the Library’s collection were crafted in the 19th century and are full-bodied figures of horses or other farm animals that Mellon acquired over a span of nearly twenty years, from 1973 to 1991.

Mellon earned world-acclaim as the breeder of many fine Thoroughbred racehorses. Sea Hero, winner of the 1993 Kentucky Derby; Mill Reef, winner of the Epsom Derby, and the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot; and Fort Marcy, a two-time winner of the Washington, D.C. International Horse Race, were all products of his breeding program at Rokeby.

The works of art that Mellon collected often reflected his interest in horses and horse sports. Five of the weather vanes at the NSL are figures of horses, two with jockeys up. Those two represent contrasts in both weather vane construction and racing style.

One is the full-bodied figure of A Racehorse in Full Gallop with forelegs and hind fully extended. The jockey leans forward, urging his mount onward with hands holding the reins high. The other racehorse is a trotter with the jockey sitting bolt upright. This is perhaps the oldest piece in the collection, circa 1850, and constructed from a flat sheet of metal.

A Running Fox reflects Mellon's love of foxhunting. The fur of the small full-bodied figure is sculpted in the copper with incised modeling. In full flight, the fox's fore and hind legs are fully extended. Cushing & White of Waltham, Mass. manufactured it in the third quarter of the 19th century.

The largest of the Mellon weather vanes, and one of his favorites, is an enormous, near life-size copper pig. It sat on a table in the Abbey Room, the main library at the Brick House, Mellon's private gallery at Rokeby.

This benevolent-looking pig, in his natural full-bodied copper skin, stands an impressive 46 x 24 inches. E.G. Washburne & Co., of New York, manufactured The Pig in the late 19th century.

The Grasshopper sat alongside Mellon’s airstrip for a number of years before it was moved to the Brick House. A new layer of gilt was added to the surface once this piece was out of the weather. Grasshoppers gained popularity in the 18th century when New Englander Shem Drowne, a weather vane craftsman, placed one with green glass eyes on top of Faneuil Hall in Boston in 1749. Soon after, a copy was made and placed on London’s Royal Exchange.

Many ordinary weather vanes were cut from wood or flat metal but most of Mellon’s are full bodied. Rick Kirschner, curator at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont, explains how the full-bodied vanes were crafted: "The hand-made vanes are more valuable. Relief molds of iron or steel were made, one for each half. Then a sheet of copper was placed over it and pounded into the depression. The two halves were then soldered together. On the ones that haven't been gilded, you can see the solder lines all around them where the two halves were joined. On some farm animals, the legs and tail were cast in lead and soldered on."

Archaeologists credit the Greek astronomer, Andronicus, as the first known builder of weather vanes around 48 BCE. In the 9th century, the Pope decreed that the rooster or cock should symbolize the betrayal of Jesus at the Last Supper. All Catholic churches in Europe were ordered to place "weathercocks" on their spires as a reminder to parishioners of Peter's betrayal and their duty to pray each morning—when the cock crows. Other Christian churches followed suit, topping their steeples with weathercocks. In America, particularly in New England, many 18th- and 19th-century churches placed weathercocks on spires.

In 1960, Mellon built Trinity Episcopal Church in Upperville, a stately church of the finest stone from the countryside. Atop Trinity stands a magnificent copper weathercock, breast swelled and beak open to crow in full voice.

Paul Mellon’s extraordinary collection of weather vanes will be on display from March 4 through August. For more information, call 540-687-6542.