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Barometer and thermometer
Carcany - Enlarge image
Barometer and thermometer
- Place of origin:
Paris, France (made)
- Date:
1730-1750 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Carcany (maker)
- Materials and Techniques:
Possibly oak veneered with panels of boulle marquetry of tortoiseshell and brass, with mounts of gilt brass; the dial set with white enamel plaques with inscriptions in black
- Credit Line:
Bequeathed by John Jones
- Museum number:
1121-1882
- Gallery location:
In Storage
At the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th, the study of sciences was developing fast. Thermometers and barometers hanging in a gentleman's apartment offered elegant evidence of the owner's intellectual interests. This combined instrument was clearly designed for a library or the small, personal rooms known as cabinets in France. Its case is veneered in boulle marquetry, which was highly fashionable at the time and combined ebony with panels of marquetry in tortoiseshell and brass. This type of decoration took its name from Louis XIV's cabinetmaker André-Charles Boulle, although his workshop was by no means the only one to use the technique.
