Beschreibung:

A Regency mahogany mercury stick barometerWilliam Harris and Company, London, early 19th centuryWith arched glazed door enclosing silvered Vernier scale calibrated in barometric inches and with the usual observations to the right opposing Fahrenheit scale mercury thermometer to the left, the upper right signed W. Harris & Co., 50 Holborn, LONDON, the moulded-edge trunk with visible tube flanked by mahogany veneers with grain set at forty-five degree angles over rounded base with hemispherical cistern cover with moulded band to waist and level adjustment screw to underside, 97cm (38ins) high. Many makers with the surname Harris have worked in the London instrument trade since the middle of the 17th century, however this branch of the family can be traced back to Richard Harris who is recorded in Clifton, Gloria Directory of British Scientific Instrument Makers 1550-1851 as working from several addresses in London circa 1710-1810. His son, William, was apprenticed to the clockmaker Joseph Robinson and gained his freedom of the Clockmakers Company in 1796. William set up business first at 47 High Holborn, London in 1805 before moving to a couple of doors down to number 50 in 1815. The business became William Harris & Company in around 1813 before being renamed William Harris & Son in 1841 when William Harris is believed to have taken in his son, Richard Joshua, into partnership. The business is recorded working from 50 High Holborn until around 1855.