Jason Clarke Antiques

Description

For sale, an early Victorian desk thermometer with glass cylinder by Thomas Rubergall.

An extremely fine example, Rubergall’s work is perhaps less well known but his output is one of consistent quality and it is unsurprising that his instruments are often found with references to royalty.

Thomas Rubergall was active from 1802 until 1854 in London and traded from three different addresses throughout those 52 years. Prices St, Soho from 1802 to 1805, 27 Coventry Street, London from 1805 to 1823 and then from there he seems to have moved to number 24 Coventry Street thereafter. Rubergall seems to have been from Huguenot French descent and may be related to earlier well known Chelsea market gardeners of the eighteenth century with the same name. He was renowned enough to have been appointed optician to George III and mathematical instrument maker and optician to the Duke of Clarence (later William IV) and to Queen Victoria.

The site of the Rubergall’s shop was situated between Piccadilly and Leicester Square.

A superbly executed instrument from one of the most prominent scientific instrument retailers of the first half of the nineteenth century.

Circa 1840