Inspired by the Egyptian obelisks like Cleopatra's Eye, which were being moved to museum collections and away from their Egyptian origins, fascinating and capturing imagination of Victorian era travelers. This is a Grand Tour souvenir, UK. This superb Victorian English thermometer was made circa 1860s in Derbyshire, an area renowned at the time for this type of fine work. Commonly known as "Buxton marble", It is made from local black slate/marble which has marquetry in various other semi-precious stone, similar to the old pietra dura mosaics from Florence, Italy. This old beauty was hand cut, hand-sawed, actually, and inlaid with bright semi-precious cut hardstone in the form of foliage and flowers around a inlaid thermometer. The stones include malachite with other colored marble. I am aware of a similar sized thermometer obelisk for sale in UK at 1400 pounds, about $1900US.
Very good to excellent condition for age and type. This piece is in good original condition with a working thermometer. It is mostly unscathed, but does have a very small chip at the very top, marked with an 'x' for your review in our photos. This obelisk is 14" tall. Other measurements noted on our photos.
