Lot Essay
This barometer/thermometer pair is very similar to a barometer attributed to Andr-Charles Boulle in the Wallace Collection, London, illustrated in Peter Hughes, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Furniture, vol.I, p.331, which has a central bearded mask instead of a garland surmounted by a palmette, and figures representing Astronomy and Geometry rather than Astronomy and Fame as on the barometer shown here. A clock of the same model but with figures of Truth and Fame were in the collection of Lady Fitzgerald at Barnsley Park, illustrated in Country Life, 7 June 1930, p. 846, fig. 4. A further related example of a slightly differing model in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, (1122-1882), is illustrated in H. Ottomeyer /P. Prschel, et. al.,Vergoldete Bronzen, vol. 1, 1986, p. 48, fig. 1.5.2.