An Empire mahogany stick barometer

Mahogany, mahogany veneer, gilt bronze, glass, mercury
Signed Bunten in Paris, pupil of Mr Mossy (BUNTEN a Paris, élève de Mr Mossy)
Paris circa 1815


A mahogany stick barometer according to Torricelli, with mercury column, which allows the increase or decrease of atmospheric pressure to be read, thanks to a mobile index moving on an engraved brass plate, bearing on the left of the column various meteorological indications ranging from very dry to stormy, as well as the memory of low-pressure conditions in Paris on 22 November 1768.


Jean-François Bunten (1791-1848), an engineer in physical instruments, was a pupil of Felix Jean Antoine Mossy, then his successor on the Quai Pelletier in Paris. Mossy, who died in 1815, was active from the second half eighteenth century to the Empire period, and was one of the best manufacturers of physical instruments in Paris. In 1788, he was awarded ingénieur du roi, and was one of the suppliers to Lavoisier's laboratory, as can be seen from the exhibits in the Musée des Arts et Métiers. In 1815 Jean-François Bunten succeeded him at the same address, 26 quai Pelletier, whose numbering changed over the century (no. 23 in 1822, no. 20 in 1828 and no. 30 in 1845). In 1825, he designed a portable barometer based on Gay Lussac's method, arranged in such a way that air could not enter in any position. A patented optician for the Duchess of Berry in 1828, he, like his master and predecessor, sold barometers, siphons for laboratories and safety tubes.