Jason Clarke Antiques

Description

For sale, an Art Deco period desk thermometer by Negretti & Zambra, London.

This small and stylish desk thermometer is of simple form with a weighted plated brass base and rectangular upright holding a silvered brass scale plate with Fahrenheit (20-120) and Celcius (0-50) readings either side. The base of the upright is engraved to the makers, Negretti & Zambra.

Negretti & Zambra were a leading name in the production of meteorological and scientific instruments and had a company history dating back to 1850 although their parents were amongst those Italian emigres that bolstered the British meteorological instrument making industry at the turn of the century.

Throughout their long and esteemed history they exhibited at British and international industrial fairs and became makers to both Queen Victoria and Edward VII. Owing to changes in the business, the firm ceased the public retailing of scientific instruments sometime around the late 1960’s and continued with a focus on the aviation industry in numerous guises until its eventual liquidation in the year 2000. They are today perhaps the most collected of the scientific instrument firms which bears testament to the quality of their work.