Research
Of chevron crossbanded kingwood and ebonized pearwood molding, brass fittings, glass receptacles. Each of elongated arched form with protruding flared bases raised on brass bun feet. The thermometer with brass engraved temperature scale, stamped on the base 3756. The barometer with shaped and engraved vernier scale inscribed C Leret / A Roüen, stamped on the base 3757. The barometer lacking mercury.
The present thermometer and barometer are part of a small group of known examples of this model by or attributed to a “philosophical” instrument maker by the name of Cleret, active in the early eighteenth century. It was not until the early 19th century that the term “scientific” was instead applied to apparatuses used in the study of mechanics, pneumatics, hydraulics, temperature, sound and light.
It is known that a pair of thermometer and barometer by Cleret was owned by the French aristocrat Joseph Bonnier de la Mosson (1702-1744). Bonnier was a scholar and collector, and he assembled a cabinet of curiosities that occupied seven connected rooms on the ground floor of his Parisian residence, the Hôtel de Lude. Arranged thematically, the cabinet contained collections pertaining to Chemistry, Pharmaceutics or Apothecary, Tools, Natural History (two rooms), Mechanics and Physics, and a Library. Upon Bonnier’s death in 1744, his fortune had dissipated and his widow sold the contents of his cabinets following the compilation of a Catalogue Raisonné, drawn up by the art dealer Edme-François Gersaint in 1745.
Full research available on request.