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1907
conventional movement tensioned on a C-spring
brass, glass, silver, silvered brass, wood
This Silver-mounted Paperweight featuring a Barometer and Compass, conceived as a symbolic desk ornament and crafted by the London silversmithing company Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Co. Ltd. in 1907, unites the aesthetics of seafaring, navigation, and weather forecasting. It is a commemorative souvenir, blending decorative refinement with utilitarian function.
The elongated rectangular base is made of luxurious rosewood, upon which rests a silver mount with two symmetrical “pillars” stylized as mooring bollards used for tying ropes. Along the edge of the silver plate runs a decorative twisted border. At the position of the mooring “posts” are set the compass and the barometer.
On the left sits a floating dial compass, equipped with an agate pivot, showing the four cardinal points and four intermediates. Its rotating windrose disc carries a fixed lubber line (course indicator), executed as a broad arrow filled with luminescent compound. The compass dial is divided into 360 degrees; slightly inward runs a contrasting black-and-white “saw-tooth” coronet (a row of triangles) designed for quick reading in rolling seas or dim light. Also inscribed on the dial is “REGP No 416646”—a registered British patent number referring to the design or a specific element of the compass (for example, the luminescent lubber arrow).
On the right elevation stands an aneroid barometer with a rotating knurled bezel of nickel-plated brass. The dial is made of silvered brass. The concentric barometric scale is engraved in inches of mercury, ranging from 26 to 31 inches, divided down to 1/20ths. The scale is complemented by five descriptive weather indications. The barometer operates on a conventional continental cantilever-type movement, structurally akin to the mechanisms characteristic of Short & Mason instruments.
Between the compass and barometer, at the center of the silver base representing the symbolic bollard, appears a heraldic device of crossed flags — the emblem of a yacht club alongside a private signal: on the left the burgee of the Koninklijke Nederlandsche Zeil- & Roeivereeniging (KNZ&RV, Royal Dutch Sailing & Rowing Association), and on the right the personal signal of the yacht Mimosa’s owner, P. ten Cate de Vries, as recorded in Lloyd’s Register of Yachts (1909).
At the foot of the silver mount are the hallmarks:
The inscription "Rd 521276" denotes a Registered Design Number. In the United Kingdom, such numbers were introduced in 1842 to indicate a design formally registered with the UK Patent Office. This object was accordingly registered as a unique design with the Board of Trade, Designs Registry (London).
Pieter (Peter) ten Cate de Vries (also recorded as Willem ten Cate de Vries) was born on 12 February 1876 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He came from a prosperous family: his father, Nicolaas de Vries, was a partner in the Amsterdam tobacco firm Herschel, Enthoven & Co., and his mother, Louisa Matthea Weimar ten Cate, was the daughter of stockbroker Mattheus Weimar ten Cate.
In 1900, by royal decree, his mother’s maiden name ten Cate was officially added to the family name de Vries, reflecting the family’s connection to the ten Cate lineage and their social standing. The ten Cate de Vries family was listed among the Dutch patriciate (a register of prominent bourgeois families). From the early 20th century, P. ten Cate de Vries resided in Amsterdam at Nicolaas Witsenkade 46, later moving to the town of Bussum. He was married to Jacoba Hendrika van der Horst (born in Leiden in 1881), daughter of Isaac H. van der Horst and Henriette P.P. Heuijerman. Pieter ten Cate de Vries passed away on 6 January 1954 in Bussum, North Holland, at the age of 77.
Following family tradition, ten Cate de Vries tied his career to the tobacco industry. He was a co-owner (shareholder) of the Amsterdam cigar factory De Jong & Co., one of the cigar producers in the Netherlands. The firm specialized in the production of cigars and the trade in tobacco products, likely using raw materials imported from the colonies. His father, Nicolaas de Vries, had also been prominent in the tobacco trade as a partner in Herschel, Enthoven & Co., a company engaged in tobacco commerce. Thus, P. ten Cate de Vries continued the family’s involvement in the tobacco business in the early 20th century.
P. ten Cate de Vries was also known as an avid yachtsman and was a member of the Royal Netherlands Yacht and Rowing Association (Koninklijke Nederlandsche Zeil- en Roeivereeniging, KNZ&RV). In the yacht register around 1907, he is mentioned as the owner of the sailing yacht Mimosa, under which he sailed with his personal signal flag (burgee). Ten Cate de Vries actively participated in sailing regattas in the early 20th century. Notably, between 1904 and 1906 he co-owned, together with fellow club member P.L. Lucassen, the racing yacht Jux, which repeatedly won competitions in the small-keel ABC class.
Thus, Pieter ten Cate de Vries is remembered as a representative of an old Amsterdam family, a successful entrepreneur in the tobacco industry, and a passionate yachtsman.
