A Barometer
on Your Wall
Antiques that work and decorate
John Forster
A
ntique barometers, even those 200 years
old, can do for you what they did for their
first owners: They’re useful, beautiful
- and make excellent pets. You don’t need to
feed them, or take them for walks; they’re never
disobedient - and they work for you! Just hang
one in the entry hall and check it before going
out, or position it between two windows or two
paintings in the living room, and enjoy being
your own weather forecaster while appreciating
the workmanship of a functioning eighteenthor nineteenth-century antique. Even start a
collection, and mount them on the wall running
up the stairs.
The mercury barometer was invented in Italy
in 1644 by Torricelli, a student of Galileo, and
any barometer made before 1750 is a specialist
item: Rare and frequently somewhat primitive.
Basically, barometers measure and display the
air pressure, which is a good indicator of the
weather, both current and to come.
Barometers come in three different styles.
Three-foot-long mercury stick barometers
from around 1770, where the air pressure
measurement is taken directly off the length of
the mercury tube, are sometimes called “male”
barometers. Second, there is the mercury wheel,
or “banjo,” barometers with curves like the
musical instrument, and are sometimes called
“female.” These have a glass “J” tube hidden
in the back, filled with mercury, and a pulley
and weight system to give an expanded and
more accurate scale for reading air pressure
changes. Third, there are aneroid barometers
from around 1850, which can be as small as
a two-inch pocket watch size up to the more
recognizable carved 30” wall banjos.
In this article we consider just one category:
Unusual, large size, uniquely decorative,
mercury wheel barometers. These barometers
here are all similar in size, about 40” x 12”
with a 10” diameter main dial. This large size
represents less than five percent of all wheel
barometers made. Ninety-five percent of wheel
barometers have an 8” dial (37” x 10” overall)
and the remaining five percent have 4,” 6,” 10,”
12,” and very occasionally larger diameter dials.
Current market values run between $2,300 and
$8,500.
Page 34 ◆ Antiques Journal ◆ March 2017
The first wheel barometers were made around
1790 during the reign of King George III, but they
did not start to be the conventional shape we see
today until around 1805-1810. Prior to this date, both
stick and wheel barometers were unique in form,
individual and rare.
This barometer dates c. 1795 and is signed
BAPTISTA RONCHETI,
Manchester (Northern
England, working
1785-1810). It
measures 40”x12”
and it has several
unique features
which only occur
on early barometers
(pre 1805). It has
an architectural top
pediment centered
by a cast brass finial,
over a long mercury
thermometer. The
case is mahogany
veneered on pine (as
usual), but has tight checker stringing to the edge,
as well as around the 10” main dial. There are also
three fan inlays (earlier than shell inlays) and the
cast brass bezel is quite close to the edge of the
case.
The signed main dial is made of engraved and
silvered brass in two parts, with an inner disc
showing the usual numbers and weather readings
(note the word “Changeable” at 12 o’clock, which
became “Change” in
about 1803) and an
outer decorative chapter
ring which is a holdover
from tall case clock
dials of the 1750s, and
presumably allowed the
inner disc—the correct
size for an 8” diameter
dial wheel barometer—to
be converted to a 10”
wheel barometer.
At the back of the
barometer, where a
long door conceals the
mercury “J” tube, there
are two brass hooks to
hold it closed; these were
replaced by 1805 by
simple brass latches.
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Made in 1800, this is a
very impressive four-dial,
London-made, wheel
barometer with a later
American brass eagle
finial as the center of a
full-depth swan neck top
pediment—so called
because the two parts
are shaped like a pair
of swans facing each
other—over a green and
brown dog’s-tooth checker
stringing strip. This, in
turn, is over a beautifully
engraved “dry or damp”
indicator, with a bone
knob beneath to turn the
needle.
The case is of dark mahogany veneer with triple edge ebony/
boxwood/ebony stringing and a pair of very fine flower inlays, or
paterae. The long alcohol thermometer in its case is removable,
and sits over the finely engraved 10” main dial. Note the word
“Changeable”, and the gracefully pierced brass set hand.
The leveling dial at the bottom is signed B. PEUERELY, London—
presently unknown as a maker, but it may well be an engraver’s
error. (Roncheti is known to have been spelled at least five
different ways!)
This is an extremely fine example of a larger size barometer with
superb craftsmanship in both the woodwork and the quality
of the engraving of the silvered brass dials. Within 20-30 years
this quality would, by and large, cease to exist, even though
all barometers—and all other antiques—were still being made
by hand with limited machinery involvement. The Industrial
Revolution had not yet arrived.
An exquisitely painted satinwood four-dial wheel barometer
with wide-set swan neck pediment; cast brass finial; and cast
brass (as opposed to pressed brass) clip for the hygrometer.
Long, removable, alcohol thermometer; 10” silvered brass main
dial, and spirit level, signed STEBBING, Portsmouth (1805-1845),
a major port on the south coast of England.
The case is of satinwood veneer on pine with an ebony strung
edge, and the exceptionally well painted surface, similar to tea
caddies, trays and small tables of the same period, dates to
around 1815-1820.
The painting is of
the finest quality,
and infinitely
superior to the midVictorian examples
found on rosewood
barometers in the
1860s. It exhibits
oak leaves and
bell flowers, ribbons
and bows, and with
light and shadow
covers most of the
front of the case.
Even without the
painting, the ebonyedged satinwood
cased barometer
would be a fine
example, but the
artistry elevates it to
a “10.”
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Barometers with
wide cross-banding
along the edges
are quite scarce
since it is a
treatment usually
reserved for the
best quality, nearly
always those with
10” or 12” diameter
dials. This particular
one is substantially
thicker than most—
2 ¼” as compared
to 1 ½” (Nicholas
Goodison used a
similar example as
the cover picture of
his excellent book
English Barometers
1680-1860.) It
has a swan neck
pediment centered
by a brass finial,
over a long bowfront mercury
thermometer, over
a 5” diameter
enamel dial clock.
Beneath the clock
is a very finely
engraved 10” dial
signed SMITH, Royal
Exchange, London
(c. 1820-1825)
with fine matching brass and steel hands.
The brass bezel has no holes for screwing it
to the case, but is attached from the back
with bolts passing through the case to handmade nuts. The bone knob for the set-hand is
beneath.
Originally the clocks mounted in these early
barometers were fusée, or occasionally
pendulum-driven, and ran for 30 hours or
sometimes eight days. Nowadays, most
of these have been changed to battery
movements for ease of maintenance and
accuracy, and that is what has been done
with this one.
March 2017 ◆ Antiques Journal ◆ Page 35
A spectacularly decorated
rosewood wheel barometer
with a detachable bow-front
mercury thermometer over a 10”
dial with central star engraving.
The case has mother-of-pearl,
abalone, brass, and brass wire
inlays, and a mother-of-pearl
knob below the dial for the set
hand. These barometers were
frequently Scottish, but this one—
much more profusely inlaid and
elaborate than most—is marked
“Warranted Correct—London.” It
is mid-Victorian, dating around
1865. Being later than the other
examples, the bezel is about
1½” from the edge of the case.
As a simple rule, the earlier the
barometer, the closer the bezel
is to the edge. The increased
distance gives more space for
inlay work.
Inside the long, hinged door
in the back is the usual 30”
“J” tube, pulley and weights,
which, as in all the previous
examples, operates the black
hand, or the “indicating” hand.
The brass hand, or “set” hand, is
controlled by the mother-of-pearl
knob beneath the main dial. By
placing the “set” hand precisely
beneath the “indicating” hand,
changes in the weather forecast
can be easily noticed by the
separation of the two hands.
This is the design that most people
associate with Georgian, mercury,
wheel barometers, usually with
an 8” diameter dial, and it dates
to around 1830. While many
were made with 8” dials, it was
also the most commonly found
configuration for 10” dials and also
exists in 4”, 6” and 12” examples. A
slightly later variant, with a shorter
thermometer and a convex mirror
mounted beneath, was made
around 1835-1845, nearly always
in mahogany with boxwood
and ebony stringing, but later in
rosewood.
There were many makers of this
style, often with Italian names;
families who had moved north
from Venice, through Italy and
France, to England where
barometers, and particularly
the English weather, were
popular topics of conversation.
So many came that English
makers found themselves at a
disadvantage when trying to sell
their barometers, and at least
one, Salter, a maker of scales
and weighing devices, changed
his name to Salteri - an early
nineteenth-century marketing
genius: If it wasn’t made by an
Italian, it obviously was not any
good!
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Circa 1680
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Dutch Heemskerk,
8-1/4” tall.
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Page 36 ◆ Antiques Journal ◆ March 2017
Images courtesy the author.
John Forster is the proprietor
of Barometer Fair, which is based
in Sarasota, Fla. and exhibits at
antique shows throughout the
United States. The company buys,
sells and restores all types of
barometers, and always carries a
large stock of English, American
and French barometers.
John Forster: 941-400-7044,
www.barometerfair.com, john@
barometerfair.com.
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