Another Heine Safety Boiler Company cast-iron Eagle. I bought this at a live auction, it was said to have originated from the customs house in Topsfield, Mass and is dated to 1890 which makes this casting one of the earliest Eagles Heine used. This one does not have the hole in the beak for the lamp cord so it may be that feature came later or some other arrangement for lighting the gage was made on this installation.

This particular casting is fairly poor, with a mold parting line shift leaving some flashing that wasn't even ground down, and a couple of pits where the iron didn't fill. The Pennsylvania Iron Works Co seemed to have cast the actual iron for Heine during the 1890's, no doubt they also provided these Eagles.

44 pounds, 31" wingspan.

UPDATE: I contacted the buildings dept in Topsfield to inquire about the customs house, Jack provided some helpful information which seems to indicate the eagle did NOT originate from this building;

Topsfield is inland and never had a customs house of any kind...If you believe the Topsfield part of the story there are several old houses in Town now vacant which could be the origin, houses dated 1905, 1912, and 1918. Steam heat was added to the Topsfield Town Hall about 1899.

The mystery grows, this particular eagle was made differently than my other one from 1922 or the one I had that was dated 1892 in that on this one the body was cast as one piece, the other two were cast in two halves bolted together, so it is my belief the 1890 year is correct and that they had some casting issues on the older casts and decided to go with a two halves body by 1892 to make it easier. Also, this one shows no evidence of having been used as a light fixture as the 1892 and newer- eagles are shown functioning as- to light the steam pressure gage, so that tells me it IS one of the earliest casts used just as an ornament.

These as far as I know have never been installed in houses (very industrial/commercial) so it appears the above vacant houses are not only too "new" but not the right type of buildings.

The Town Hall would have been a likely candidate for this type of boiler but at 1899 probably not.

I do like historical research and I do like to keep my web page information as accurate as possible, so I put a disputed origins note on my page for this, it's doubtful I'll find more information on it as the auction house had posted what THEY were told by the consignee, and obviously it was not correct. Happy with the item but would have been nice to be able to add the historical background to it.

This is how the later eagles were used, this one from 1898 which shows the eagle in use by then as a lamp fixture;