Nantucket Whaling Lamp Finial

Description

This Copper Mermaid Nantucket whaling lamp finial replicates the Americana artform of early weathervanes in a handcrafted verdigris green finish forenjoyment all year long. Finial includes whaleboat, whale’s tail, and larger three-masted whaleship or bark.

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Ninth century folklore notes that weathervanes became populardue to a papal edict that a rooster, the emblem of St. Peter, top everyChristian church. The marriage of these three-dimensional weather-cocks to themetal insignia banners (fanes) of the Middle Ages begot the use of weathervanesas architectural adornments. In mid-seventeenth century America, weathervanesforecasted the weather for the farmer and mariner. Colonial craftsmen createdoriginal forms of hand-crafted silhouette or three-dimensional weathervanes.After the Revolution, imaginative copper and tin smiths fashioned a variety ofbarnyard animals or figures representing coastal life, or whatever the propertyowner wished to have for a weathervane form.

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Made in New England.

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Verdigris (green). The finials vary in size by design and are approximately 3″ x 3″.

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