Hi Ben,

Thank you for contacting Mearto with your appraisal inquiry.

Pastorelli & Co. of 208 Piccadilly is a very respectable mid-to-late Victorian London scientific instrument firm, and their barometers sit in an interesting middle ground between serious instrument making and retail decorative production.

Pastorelli & Co. were part of a long-running London dynasty of instrument makers that began with Fortunato Pastorelli in the early 1800s and evolved through successive generations.

By the time they were at 208 Piccadilly (c. 1859–1875), they were operating in one of London’s most prestigious retail corridors. This address signals an important shift away from earlier Pastorelli working at Hatton Garden in a technical workshop environment to their Piccadilly period, which saw upmarket retail and exhibition-quality instruments.

In 1875, the firm moved to Bond Street and evolved with different partnerships.

With changing restrictions and regulations surrounding shipping and transporting barometers (both antique and modern) with mercury, the market for antique barometers has slipped a bit. Most auction houses will still sell them but there may be restrictions in your state about purchasing them or having them shipped into, out of or within and, accordingly, most auction houses price barometers they are selling quite conservatively, rarely above $1,000.

If you're interested in selling this or any of the other barometers you've asked us to appraise, you might reach out to British born barometer dealer John Forster, who owns Barometer Fair in Sarasota, Florida. He buys and sells all barometer varieties (stick, wheel, banjo and aneroid) and is well-known in the antiques business for paying fair prices (and you'd avoid paying an auctioneer a commission to sell them). Other US-based barometer dealers include The Barometer Shop (Rockport, Maine) and The Weather Store (Sandwich, Mass).

Based on the photos and information provided, and subject to examination, this is:

An antique Victorian walnut stick barometer
made by Pastorelli & Co, London, circa 1859-1875
the domed top enclosing angled bone or white enamel plates and register signed 'Pastorelli & Co, / 208 Piccadilly, London', the waisted case with applied mercury box with scale, over a circular cistern with applied boss.
35 inches overall length
CONDITION: this appears to be in good cosmetic condition; not examined or warranted to be in working condition
PROVENANCE: Inherited
$250-350*
*represents a fair-market value for auction purposes; retail or asking price may vary.

Please let us know if you have additional items to appraise, or questions/concerns, and thank you again for using Mearto.
~ Delia