It has been a long road for the white bronze angel discovered missing last March from Maplewood Cemetery in Mt Upton. Many people responded to the distressing news by writing newspaper articles, posting flyers and calling scrap dealers. Rebecca D.M. Todd, a professional photographer who often works with the Farmers’ Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., and is also a cemetery enthusiast, contacted The Daily Star, Hesse Galleries, as well as other antiques dealers and The Fenimore Art Museum. We were bound and determined to get her back, but it seemed like a long shot.
An article was placed in the publication Antiques and The Arts Weekly based in Newtown, Conn. They were very concerned and more than willing to help. It has a large distribution and is known as “the bible for the antiques industry.” The Guide Magazine, which circulates throughout the Hudson Valley and the Catskill Mountain Region, also showed great concern and kindly placed a public announcement in its June issue.
Antiques dealers say this problem is not unique but endemic across the country, with items such as urns, fencing, tombstones and statuary stolen from cemeteries frequently. We can only imagine that with the current economy, the problem will worsen.
The angel turned up in an antiques shop more than 350 miles away. A consignor for Withington Antiques, York, Maine, was looking through an issue of Antiques and The Arts Weekly in May and spotted the angel’s photo and accompanying article. He recognized it as something he had purchased in Troy, N.Y., and immediately called the Chenango County sheriff’s office. The department compared photographs and determined it was in fact “our” angel. The angel had a distinctive blemish on her right hand and some cracks, but no real identifying marks such as a name or date. We were lucky to have high-quality digital photos to scrutinize and compare.
At the end of June, the man brought the piece to Waterford, Conn., where he had business, and turned it over to the local authorities. On June 29, I traveled to Connecticut and picked it up. Ironically, on the way I passed through the city where the white bronze monuments originated. They were actually made of zinc and were manufactured by a monument company/foundry based in Bridgeport, Conn. Begun in 1874, the company ceased to make memorials in 1914.
Now the angel will go back to the cemetery newly secured and will not go traveling again!
Additional thanks go to the Chenango County Sheriff’s department and Deputy Deb Ives, the diligence of Rebecca Todd and articles by Wilma Felton Gray. Also a huge thanks to Rodney Schultes for immediately talking to his caretakers. and filing the police report. All too often, such items are not recovered. We are very lucky we have so many people who care.
