A Dutch Louis XIV barometer, made c. 1720. The burl alder-veneered oak case has an arched pediment, ebony mouldings and richly engraved fire-gilt register plates and cartouches. The barometer scale is divided into inches, which are subdivided into tenths. To the right of the scale is a manual setting hand. • The system applied on the register plates, the indication in inches on separate summer and winter scales, is characteristic of early Dutch barometers; later the left-hand plate was used for imperial inches whilst the right-hand one was reserved for Rhineland inches. The long alcohol thermometer has a large Florentine scale divided as follows 100-0-80. To the left and the right of the thermometer scale there are 18 engraved fire-gilt cartouches with the ambient condition for the respective temperatures in Dutch and French, as well as the corresponding signs of the zodiac. Both the thermometer and barometer tube reservoirs are protected by a vertically sliding reservoir cap. The tops of the tubes are surmounted by a winged-cherub head.