Product Description
A wonderful carved wood Nantucket sailor boy whirligig in original paint. As is frequently the case, the paddles are missing. 15 1/4 in. tall. ca. 1900 - 1920.
According to Charles Carpenter in The Decorative Arts and Crafts of Nantucket, "whirligigs, carved figures with two paddles which rotate in a breeze with a whirling motion, were designated as weather vanes in Nantucket in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, being called "Sailor-Boy" and "Happy Jack" weather vanes"
Referencing Ken Fitzgerald in his book Weathervanes and Whirligigs, he writes: "Until the mid-1930's, the paddle armed figures we call whirligigs were described as weathervanes".