Country House Collections at Slane Castle October 12
th
& 13
th
2014
221
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A FINE AND RARE REGENCY VERRE EGLOMISÉ
AND BRASS-MOUNTED WHEEL BAROMETER BY
JOHN RUSSELL OF FALKIRK,
Royal barometer and clockmaker. The mahogany veneered case
surmounted by gilded Prince of Wales’s feathers and banded with
rope-twist mounts enclosing verre eglomisé glazed panels and
mercury thermometer inscribed ‘R. Society/of London’ and signed
‘Jno. Rufsell Falkirk’ above a main dial of 10 inches inscribed
“Rufsell, Falkirk INVT ET FECIT / WATCH MAKER to his
R.H. the PRINCE of WALES”, with two smaller inset dials and
surrounded by a moulded brass bezel. The scale is calibrated to
read between 28 and 31 inches of mercury.
John Russell (c.1745-1817) began his career as a blacksmith but
would become one of the “best-known clock and watchmakers of
his day” (Goodison, p. 228). He had a shop in Falkirk from about
1770 and made clocks for the Prince of Wales (the Prince Regent,
later George IV).
Russell was best known for his wheel barometers, the most
elaborate of which were described as “royal-barometers,” since
Russell had presented two of them to George III and the Prince
of Wales. These are still in the Royal Collection, and have similar
verre eglomisé panels below the register plate and enclosing the
thermometer (Jagger, plate 285).
Although Prince of Wales feathers had become a popular
decorative device among cabinet-makers, in the case of this
barometer Russell might well have employed them in reference
to his royal warrant. Another of Russell’s wheel barometers, with
verre eglomisé panels in gold on a black ground and surmounted
by Prince of Wales feathers can be seen in the Victoria and Albert
Museum (Edwards, plate 146).
Bibliography:
Nicholas Goodison, English Barometers 1680-1860 [Woodbridge,
1977]
Cedric Jagger, Royal Clocks: The British Monarchy and its
Timekeepers 1300-1900 [London, 1983]
Ralph Edwards, Georgian Furniture [London, 1951]
€10,000 - 15,000
