A MOLDED AND GILT-COPPER MASSASOIT INDIAN WEATHERVANE

Named after Massasoit, sachem of the Wampanoag tribe whose assistance enabled the survival of the Pilgrim settlers in seventeenth-century Massachusetts, the model for this weathervane was derived from a larger vane depicting the Massachusetts state seal made by J. Harris & Co. in 1875 for the Old State House in Boston. Thereafter, this standing figure model was produced by the company for sale to the public and after 1883, continued to by made by the W. A. Snow Company, which had acquired the molds of the Harris company. The model appears in the J. Harris & Co. 1878 illustrated catalogue as no. 13 and at the time the 30-inch model retailed for $40.