Dreweatt Neate Donnington Priory Salerooms
Lot 125
A fine and rare George III mahogany cistern tube angle barometer Whitehurst, Derby, circa 1775. With square section finial to the cavetto moulded and gadrooned pediment above angled silvered glazed scale calibrated from 0 to 57 with Stormy, RAIN, Changeable, FAIR, Settled Fair predictions and signed Whitehurst, DERBY to left-hand corner of lower edge, within an ogee moulded surround and behind an exposed tube, the caddy moulded trunk with concealed tube and crossbanded borders to the figured veneers, the shaped base with half cylinder turned cistern cover with ring turned girdle and finials to top and bottom, 94cm high, B.C. Ref. 81. Illustrated in Banfield, Edwin BAROMETERS Stick or Cistern Tube page 156. John Whitehurst is recorded by Banfield as being born in 1713 and dying in 1788, he moved to London in 1775 to take the post of Stamper of Money Weights at the Royal Mint, London. It is thought that his brother, James, managed the Derby business until his son, John (2), was old enough to run it. He in turn took his son, also called John (3), into partnership circa 1810 when the business became known as Whitehurst and Son. The partnership continued until 1834 when John (2) died. John Whitehurst senior became friendly with the astronomer and lecturer James Ferguson in London and took active roles within learned societies in the Midlands including Club Thirteen and The Lunar Society where he met Matthew Boulton who became a good friend. This particular barometer relates to a group of three instruments which are comprehensively described in Goodison, Nicholas English BAROMETERS 1680-1860 Part II Some Important Makers and Retailers pages 281-283. A fourth example was sold by Sothebys at their sale of the contents of Fawley House, 14th October 2003. The scale calibration appears to be arbitrary however roughly equates to three inches divided into twentieths.
