Victorian Spiral Thermometer

This is a curious thermometer from the mid-victorian era by Benetfink & Co of Cheapside, London. This business is recorded as trading from 1865 to 1885. The sealed, large mercury thermometer reservoir is of the spiral design, a particularly difficult style to manufacture and only entrusted to highly skilled workers and not produced successfully in the UK for over 100 years. This thermometer, with a polished English oak case may well have started its life as part of a barometer set and skillfully reformed into this attactive instrument.