Eagle

The attribution is based on a seemingly identical eagle that, in 1972, was also dated ca. 1850 and ascribed to the "Meeker Foundry in Newark, New Jersey." D. M. Meeker was one of the original owners of the firm established in 1843 at 87-95 Clay Street, but at that time, the foundry's name was Gardner, Harrison and Company. In 1858, the name was changed to Pierson & Meeker, and in 1861, D. M. Meeker became the sole proprietor. (In 1873, the name changed yet again, to D. M. Meeker & Son, when Stephen J. Meeker joined his father as a partner). The operation flourished (and was active at least as late as 1957). When its specialties were described in 1874, however, machinery and iron window sashes were emphasized; no ornamental castings were mentioned, and since no catalogues for the company have been located, it is unclear what percentage of its production consisted of figures like this eagle, which was designed to be mounted on the wall of a building.

Reportedly, the museum's eagle (and an identical mate) turned up in a shipment received by scrap iron dealer Charles Wintersnitz who, in 1850, installed the pair in front of his home at 637 Columbia Avenue in Baltimore, Maryland. Although that oral history has not been verified, the two eagles were still on the property as late as 1940, when a Baltimore newspaper pictured them there, not mounted on the front of the building but standing on brick pedestals in the front yard.

The irregular, rounded forms below the eagle have been described as flowers on occasion, but almost certainly they were meant to represent clouds.

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