Estate / Collection: The Manolovici Collection

Daniel Quare, No. 95, circa 1710

With silvered plates engraved on one side with English weather indications, the reverse in French, the gilt-metal arched hood with central finial flanked by two Vernier adjustment finials with engraving to the sides within wheatear borders, mounted above a swivel suspension bracket numbered 95 to the underside, the box section similarly engraved and signed twice: on one side 'Invented/& made/by D: Quare/LONDON', the other side 'Faits/Portatifs/par D.Quare/A LONDRES', the ivory pillar divided into four sections by gilt-brass collets, the lower collet with the engraved band supporting four folding feet headed with leaves and putti masks above lambrequins, the underside of the cistern with a plate engraved with foliate scrolls and the initials F and E.

Height 36 3/4 in (93.3 cm)

Sold together with New York State Department of Environmental Conservation License (ECL), with authorization to sell Interstate and Intrastate, expiration date of May 15, 2025.

(1)

Percival D. Griffiths, Esq.

J. S. Sykes, Esq.o

Mrs. J. S. Sykes, sold Sotheby's, London, July 15, 1966, lot 74.

Bought from R. A. Lee, London, August 3, 1966.

Christie's London, The Samuel Messer Collection of English Furniture, Clocks and Barometers, December 5, 1991, lot 13.

Purchased by the consignor at the above sale.

P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, 1st ed., 1924, vol. 1, p. 14, fig. 10, and rev. ed., London, 1954, vol. 1, p. 30, fig. 10.

R. W. Symonds, English Furniture from Charles II to George II, London, 1929, p. 303, fig. 257.

R. W. Symonds, Masterpieces of English Furniture and Clocks, London, 1940, pp. 160-65, figs. 122, 125-26

Country Life, September 1, 1966, p. 491, fig. 4,

N. Goodison, English Barometers and their Makers, 1680-1860, 1969, pp. 192-201.

Daniel Quare (1647-1724) manufactured barometers of exceptional quality during the late 17^th and early 18^th centuries. His patent for a portable cistern pillar barometer in 1695 featured a narrowed bore concealing an elongated glass tube reducing the risk of breaks and spillages. His inclusion of a leather bag or cover placed over the cistern allowed for these items to travel safely and garnered acclaim by the Patent Office as, ‘without spilling one drop of the quicksilver or letting any air into the tube.’ The demand for barometers remained strong across Europe, with other known examples of Quare's barometers displaying French and German indications, underscoring his significant presence in the European market.

Similar examples sold at auction include: a Queen Anne walnut portable pillar barometer, Christie’s, London, 23 May 2013, lot 1123; an ebonised and parcel-gilt pillar barometer, Christie's, London, 27 May 2010, lot 18; an ebonised, parcel-gilt and ivory-mounted siphon barometer (No. 60) Christie's, London, The Roger Warner Collection, 20 January 2009, lot 355; a Queen Anne ebonised and ivory-mounted syphon barometer (No. 59), Christie's, London, 11 December 2002, Lot 78; a walnut double-sided barometer (No. 38), Sotheby's, London, The Ronald A. Lee Collection, 28 November 2001, lot 109; an ivory double-side pillar barometer, Sotheby's, London, December 4, 2012, lot 373.