A fine George III mahogany bayonet-tube mercury stick

A fine George III mahogany bayonet-tube mercury stick barometer with large-scale thermometer Nairne and Blunt, London, circa 1780 The caddy moulded case inset with arched silvered Vernier scale calibrated in barometric inches to the right hand margin opposing weather observations to the left, the upper margin signed in a curve Nairne & Blunt, London and the lower edge decorated with an engraved leafy scroll flanked cavetto-shaped angles, the trunk applied with full-height silvered-scale spirit thermometer calibrated in Fahrenheit with scale divided in degrees annotated 0-110 opposing markers inscribed Freezing, Temprate and Blood Heat, over pierced brass bulb shield and circular base applied with half sphere cistern cover incorporating level adjustment screw to underside, 96.5cm (38ins) high. Provenance: Private collection Hampshire (ref. B14); purchased at Mallams, Oxford, June 1982 for £1,050 hammer. The collaboration between Edward Nairne and his former apprentice Thomas Blunt is recorded in Banfield, Edwin BAROMETER MAKERS AND RETAILERS 1660-1900 as established in 1774 and lasting until 1793. Edward Nairne was born in 1726 and apprenticed to the celebrated instrument maker, Matthew Loft, in 1741. Latterly he worked from 20 Cornhill and published numerous booklets on navigational, pneumatic and astronomical instruments. In 1776 Nairne devised a marine barometer with a restriction to the bore of the mercury tube which served to dampen the oscillation of the mercury, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1776 and died 1806. Thomas Blunt was apprenticed to Edward Nairne in 1760 with whom he formed a loose partnership in 1774, perhaps for mutual convenience as his premises were next door to Nairne's at 22 Cornhill. Blunt designed some of the components for the 'New Barometer' devised by the Portuguese Scientist J.H. Magellan for measuring altitude, and latterly became instrument maker to George III. In 1793 he took his son, also named Thomas, into partnership and subsequently relocated to 136 Minories in 1814, he died in 1822. An almost identical instrument to the current lot (signed by Nairne alone) is illustrated in Banfield, Edwin BAROMETERS, Stick or Cistern tube on page 75.