Y A fine Regency mahogany bowfronted 'flat to the wall' mercury stick barometer Bate, London, circa 1825 With swan neck pediment and cavetto cornice over silvered Vernier scale calibrated in barometric inches and annotated Very Dry, Set Fair, FAIR, Change, RAIN, M'ch Rain, Stormy beneath signature Bate, London to upper margin, behind bowed glass within moulded surround above ebony line edged trunk of the same bowed profile incorporating vernier setting screw to throat, the base with turned half vase cistern cover flanked by ebony line strung canted angles over cavetto moulded underside incorporating level adjustment screw, 100cm (39.25ins approx.) high excluding brass finial. The current lot is almost certainly by Robert Brettell Bate who is recorded in Clifton, Gloria Directory of British Scientific Instrument Makers 1550-1851 as working from Poultry, London 1808-42 and then 33 Royal Exchange 1846-47. Bate was known as a maker of all types of instrument however was celebrated for his nautical instruments including marine barometers and latterly was appointed Instrument-maker to Her Majesty s Honourable Boards if Excise and Customs.