MID-18TH CENTURY, WITH LATER ENGLISH PLATES SIGNED CARPENTER AND WESTLEY, LONDON

Carpenter & Westley were the leading British manufacturers of magic lanterns and slides during the mid-19th Century and exhibited in the Great Exhibition of 1851. Philip Carpenter was established as early as 1815 as an optician in Birmingham. In 1826 he moved to London where he stayed up until his death in 1833. His sister Mary continued the business in partnership with William Westley (d. 1887), an apprentice of Carpenter's from Birmingham who later went on to take over the business. It became known as Carpenter & Westley in 1835 and remained in its Regent Street location up until the 1920s. It is likely that this Dutch barometer was brought to London by an English purchaser, the plates then replaced to suit English taste.

PERCIVAL D. GRIFFITHS

The collection formed by Percival D. Griffiths, F.S.A (d. 1938) under the wise counsel of R. W. Symonds is considered to be arguably the greatest collection of English Furniture formed during the 20th Century. Indeed, it was Griffiths' collection that provided the content for Symonds' seminal work English Furniture from Charles II to George II, 1929. The interiors at Sandridgebury are happily recalled in 'Sandridgebury: The Country Residence of Percival D. Griffiths', published by Symonds in Antiques, March 1931, pp. 193-196. Symonds later published 'Percival Griffiths, F.S.A.: A Memoir on a Great Collector of English Furniture', The Antique Collector, November-December 1943, pp. 163-169.