S. TOD, EDINBURGH. LATE 18TH EARLY 19TH CENTURY

Details

A GEORGE III SCOTTISH CARVED MAHOGANY AND GILTWOOD STICK BAROMETER
S. TOD, EDINBURGH. LATE 18TH EARLY 19TH CENTURY
CASE: modelled as a dragon entwined around a fluted column with foliate carved capital PLATE: engraved brass register plate with sliding Vernier scale and alcohol thermometer (tube replaced), hygrometer to the arch (hand lacking), signed 'S Tod/Edin'; mercury removed
40½ in. (103 cm.) high; 4 in. (10 cm.) wide; 2¼ in. (5.5 cm.) deep

Provenance

Percival D. Griffiths, Esq. F.S.A (d. 1938).

Literature

R. W. Symonds, English Furniture from Charles II to George II, London, 1929, p. 256, fig. 214.
P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, rev. ed., 1954, vol. I, p. 33, fig. 20.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 17.5% on the buyer's premium.

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Lot Essay

Although the style of this barometer, with its Gothic and Rococo features, is more typical of earlier designs (Macquoid and Edwards suggest a date of 1745), it is likely to have been made in the late 18th or early 19th Century. Clock and barometer case designs tended to lag behind those of furniture, especially outside London. Edwin Banfield records an S. Tod working in Edinburgh circa 1800-1820 who could well have been working earlier.

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