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Artist or Maker: CIRCA 1700 AND LATER

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Provenance: with Arthur S. Vernay, Inc., New York.

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Notes: The design of this cistern barometer relates closely to examples produced by the leading specialist barometer-maker John Patrick (fl.1686-c.1720) of Jewin Street and later Ship Court, Old Bailey, London. Patrick was unusual in that he was a barometer specialist unlike many of his contemporaries who also manufactured clocks and mathematical instruments. His favorable reputation earned him the moniker 'Torricellian Operator' (Lexicon Technicum, 1704) so-named after Toricelli, a disciple of Galileo, who created the first mercurial barometer in 1643. He produced a pamphlet of circa 1700 and again in 1710 advertising examples of a similar design (reproduced in N.Goodison, English Barometers 1680-1860, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1977, pp.47-48, pl.6 and 7).

A similarly arched walnut barometer supplied for the Queen's Gallery at Hampton Court Palace, Middlesex by an unknown maker is illustrated in N. Goodison, op.cit., p.49, pl.8. Another in a private collection was exhibited in The Stuart Legacy: English Art 1603-1714, Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama, 24 March-7 May 1991 (illustrated in W.R. Brown, ed., The Stuart Legacy, 1991, p.42, fig.53 and p.81, no.44). A further example from the collection of Percival D. Griffiths, Esq. is illustrated in F. Gibson, 'Old English Barometers in the Collection of Mr. Percival D. Griffiths', Connoisseur, December 1921, p.219, fig.VIII. Another with floral marquetry and plaque set within an outset frame at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is illustrated in Goodison, ibid, p.50, pl.9. These examples share the common feature of a shaped scroll base which is lacking in this model.