Barometers Realm

A particularly interesting later-period brochure issued by Negretti & Zambra to promote a limited-edition reproduction of one of the most historically important instruments associated with the firm: the Admiral FitzRoy Barometer.

The brochure belongs to a very different phase of Negretti & Zambra’s history from the Victorian advertisements represented elsewhere in the collection. By the time this leaflet was issued, the firm had existed for more than a century and was consciously drawing upon its own historical reputation. Instead of presenting a new technical innovation, it offered a deliberately historical object — a modern replica of the nineteenth-century barometer associated with Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy.

The dating can be narrowed by the address 15 New Bond Street, which Negretti & Zambra began using after the closure of its long-established Regent Street premises in the mid-1960s. The typography, photographic treatment and corporate wording suggest a date in the late 1960s or early 1970s.

The limited edition consisted of only 500 instruments for the United Kingdom, each accompanied by a numbered certificate of authenticity. Particularly significant is the statement that the certificates were to be personally signed by P. A. Negretti, identified as a great-grandson of the founder. The campaign therefore deliberately emphasized continuity between the nineteenth-century family enterprise and the modern Negretti & Zambra Group.

The reproduced barometer follows the familiar architectural form associated with FitzRoy instruments: a tall wooden case containing a mercury barometer, thermometer and extensive printed weather instructions arranged around the scales. These instruments were designed not merely to display atmospheric pressure but to help the user interpret changes in pressure, wind and temperature in order to anticipate approaching weather. The brochure also invokes FitzRoy’s command of H.M.S. Beagle during the famous voyage of 1831–1836 with Charles Darwin, using this association to give the replica both scientific and historical prestige. In doing so, Negretti & Zambra transformed its own nineteenth-century heritage into a collectible product intended for domestic interiors, clubs and presentation purposes.

One side of the brochure reinforces this historical narrative visually by juxtaposing the replica barometer with material devoted to FitzRoy’s life and career. The other side is overtly commercial, containing the description of the limited edition, the certificate of authenticity and a detachable enquiry form to be returned to the New Bond Street shop.

The leaflet is therefore significant not only as advertising ephemera but also as evidence of the way Negretti & Zambra began consciously commercialising its own history in the later twentieth century. Whereas its Victorian advertisements sold barometers as modern and useful scientific instruments, this brochure sells essentially the opposite idea: continuity, tradition, historical authenticity and association with one of the foundational figures of British meteorology.