Antique Aneroid Barometers
A barometer worked by a sealed metal vacuum capsule instead of a mercury tube, usually set behind a round dial in a wooden wall case, made to read the weather in the hall, on deck or in the pocket.
Antique Aneroid Barometers
The aneroid movement is a sealed, partly evacuated metal capsule that flexes as air pressure changes, linked by levers to a pointer on a dial. Developed in the mid-19th century as a compact alternative to the mercury tube, it took the barometer out of the tall case and put it on a wall, a ship, a belt or a survey pack.
What you'll meet most often on Sellingantiques is a British domestic wall piece with a circular dial in a carved wooden case. Oak leads the timbers, named in 121 of 447 titles, with walnut in 60 and mahogany in 37, and 'carved' runs through 82 of them. Victorian appears in 197 titles and Edwardian in 44, though those read as broad era labels rather than dates: where decades are given the weight sits in the 1880s to 1910s, with tails back to the 1860s and forward to the 1930s.
Around the carved wall dials sit several smaller groups. Banjo cases, the waisted wall shape, account for 32 titles. Barographs, which trace pressure on a clockwork-driven chart, account for 30 and form a much larger share of current stock. Brass-cased, pocket, ships' and surveying instruments together make up roughly a tenth, and skeletonised cases, cut away so the movement shows through the front, turn up in 15.
The archive spans 1800 to 1940 and strays from Britain only now and then, with Danish, Dutch, American, French and New Zealand pieces surfacing. One-offs include a hypsometer, a typhoon barometer, a barometer hatstand and a clock and barometer shaped as a caduceus.
Where The Range Sits
Timber and carving do most of the sorting. Carved walnut, burr walnut, rosewood and inlaid mahogany sit toward the top, Black Forest carved cases among them in 11 titles, while small plain oak and beech pieces sit at the bottom. Inlay is quoted in 12 titles and tends to travel with the higher end.
Type matters as much as timber. Recording barographs, particularly five-glass mahogany cases with a chart drawer, sit well above plain wall dials, and the specialist instruments follow them up. Scale pushes in the same direction: larger dials and larger cases carry more weight, with sampled registers quoted at 10, 12 and 13 inches and two brass examples fitted with ten subsidiary dials.
A legible signature on the dial lifts a piece. London appears in 64 titles, but provincial retailers are scattered widely, from Brecon and Hitchin to Darlington, Swansea, Norwich, Harrogate, Glasgow, Dublin and Liverpool. A silvered or porcelain register plate is a recurring quality note in the titles themselves.
Antique Aneroid Barometers Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for aneroid barometers, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
One-offs in the archive include a typhoon barometer, a hypsometer, a barometer hatstand, and a clock and barometer shaped as a caduceus.
Negretti & Zambra
The Antique Aneroid Barometers Glossary
- Aneroid
- A barometer worked by a sealed vacuum capsule rather than a column of mercury. The whole category takes its name from the movement, not the case.
- Banjo
- The waisted, tapering wall case shape, carried over from earlier mercury barometers. It appears in 32 titles, often in oak and sometimes inlaid.
- Skeletonised
- A case cut away so the movement is visible from the front. Listed variously as skeletonised, skeleton, visible works or visible mechanism.
- Barograph
- A recording barometer that traces pressure onto a clockwork-driven paper chart. The chart drawer is the small drawer in the base holding spare charts.
- Five-glass case
- A barograph case glazed on all four sides and the top, so the mechanism and pen arm are on show.
- Compensated
- A movement corrected for temperature error, stated on pocket and surveying pieces where accuracy in the field mattered.
Antique Aneroid Barometers: Frequently Asked Questions
How is an aneroid different from a mercury barometer?
The aneroid reads pressure through a sealed metal capsule that is partly emptied of air. As pressure changes the capsule flexes, and levers carry that movement to a pointer on the dial.
No mercury tube means no long column to house, which is why these cases are round-dialled and comparatively compact.
What wood are most cases made from?
Oak is the default, named in 121 of 447 titles on Sellingantiques, with walnut in 60 and mahogany in 37.
Other timbers surface only once or twice each: beech, ebony, rosewood, kingwood, fruitwood and birdseye maple.
What does Victorian mean in one of these titles?
Treat it as a broad era label rather than a date. Victorian appears in 197 titles and Edwardian in 44, and a number of pieces are filed only as 19th century or circa 1900.
Where decades are actually given, the weight sits in the 1890s and 1900s, with the 1880s and 1910s close behind. The dated field as a whole runs 1800 to 1940.
What is a barograph?
A recording barometer. A clockwork drum turns a paper chart under an inked pen arm, so pressure is drawn as a continuous line over the week.
Barographs account for 30 titles in the archive and a far higher share of what is currently listed. Five-glass mahogany cases with a chart drawer sit toward the upper end of the range.
Are pocket and ships' barometers common?
They're a minority alongside the wall dials. Brass-cased, pocket, ships' and surveying instruments together make up around a tenth of the archive.
Brass appears in 25 titles, ships in 11 and pocket in 9, with surveying, mining, marine and altimeter pieces alongside them.
Which signatures turn up on the dials?
London is the commonest place name, in 64 titles. Negretti & Zambra is the maker recorded across more than one dealer's stock.
Provincial retailers are spread widely, with Brecon, Hitchin, Darlington, Torquay, Swansea, Sleaford, Leeds, Wigan, Norwich, Newcastle, Exeter, Harrogate, Hull, Glasgow, Manchester, Dublin and Liverpool all appearing.