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Rugged and rusty, windmill weights first generated interest in the 1980s when folk-art enthusiasts began stocking up on the heavy weights. Sure, they were utilitarian objects, but tastemakers taught us to see art in functional design (think weather vanes and door handles). “Now mill weights are going back to the Midwest, where they originated,” says Pennsylvania dealer Charles Wilson. Working farmers have taken an interest in their heritage, he notes. “It’s farm memorabilia. They don’t buy them because they are folk art.”
Like weather vanes, mill weights were made in factories. “Molten iron was poured into sand molds,” Wilson explains, but they were shaped to stand out against the sky as well as to advertise the company brand. For instance, roosters were a winning logo for the Elgin Wind Power and Pump Company in Elgin, Illinois.
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