A very refined Regency period mahogany stick barometer with original swan-neck cresting, twin silvered register plates and ebonised cistern cover.

The finely figured and patinated mahogany case has a shallow moulded cornice rising to an elegant swan-neck pediment with a turned bone finial. The arched glazed head presents a bowed front to protect the register and retains the original brass screws and sight mouldings. The slender, beautifully patinated flame mahogany trunk is fitted with a small turned bone set-knob and terminates in a domed ebonised urn-shaped cistern cover with a threaded brass level screw beneath.

The arched silvered register plate is neatly laid out with the traditional weather indications to the left- Very Dry, Set Fair, Fair, Change, Rain, Much Rain, Stormy-and a barometric scale from 27 to 31 inches to the right, read against a sliding vernier index operated by the set-knob on the trunk. The plate is delicately engraved Holmes, London. A mercury-in-glass tube rises behind the plate from the concealed cistern in the base.

Date: circa 1800

Height: 39 in (99 cm)

Width: 5 in (5.7 cm)

*Holmes refers initially to John Holmes (1727–1797), a leading London clockmaker based at 156 Strand from 1760 until his death in 1797. After that, the business was continued by his widow and sons, principally William Holmes, who is recorded working at the same address until 1816. While John mainly produced fine regulators and clocks, the fashion for domestic stick and wheel barometers only emerged around 1795-1815, after his death. For this reason, barometers signed Holmes, London are generally attributed to William’s tenure, when the firm continued under the family name. Both John and William Holmes are listed on page 386 of Brian Loomes’ Watchmakers and Clockmakers of the World: Complete 21^st Century Edition.

HW6582