James Stratton
Director
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Lot 70W
A rare late 18th century mahogany stick barometer Adie, Edinburgh
12 December 2012, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£10,000 - £12,000
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A rare late 18th century mahogany stick barometer
Adie, Edinburgh
Surmounted by a curved reeded finial over a straight sided trunk terminating in a matching cistern cover with carved dependent finial, the signed silvered dial marked from 26 to 31 inches with vernier scale operated via a rack and pinion arrangement below, labelled with five predictions 1.02m (3ft 4ins) high.
Surmounted by a curved reeded finial over a straight sided trunk terminating in a matching cistern cover with carved dependent finial, the signed silvered dial marked from 26 to 31 inches with vernier scale operated via a rack and pinion arrangement below, labelled with five predictions 1.02m (3ft 4ins) high.
Footnotes
Alexander Adie was born in 1775 and, at the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to his uncle, John Miller, one of the leading eighteenth-century Scottish instrument makers. Their partnership of Miller and Adie began in 1804 and although Miller died in 1815, the business continued under the same name until 1822.
Adie's main focus was on meteorological instruments and his improved air barometer, known as the sympiesometer, obtained British Patent No. 4323 in 1818. As a result of this and his other research, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1819. He was appointed optician to William IV and Queen Victoria.
He went into partnership with his son John under the name Adie & Son in 1835 and the business was extended to Liverpool and London by his other sons, Richard and Patrick.