Enfilade

Now on view at the Royal Palace in Stockholm:

In the Course of Time: 400 Years of Royal Clocks / I tiden: Kungliga klockor under 400 år
Royal Palace of Stockholm, 22 January — 25 September 2016

Marble and gold-plated bronze table clock with portrait medallions of King Gustav I, King Gustav II Adolf and King Gustav III. Made for King Gustav III by the Swedish-born clockmaker André Hessén in Paris. Photo: Alexis Daflos/Royalcourt.se

The exhibition In Course of Time: 400 Years of Royal Clocks features more than 50 royal clocks—some of which are on show for the first time—dating from the 16th century to the present day. The exhibition marks the 70th birthday of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden (30 April 2016).

Clockmaking is a precise trade, and clocks have long been seen as extremely exclusive objects. They have therefore often been designed with a great degree of artistic skill. The clock as an objet d’art is one aspect of the exhibition. With the dawn of the modern era, clocks also became useful tools for coordinating work at the palace. For example, the exhibition includes the clock that governed the palace guards’ routines during the 19th century. Today, clocks remain part of day-to-day palace life. Most of the clocks in the collections still work, continuing to perform their function centuries later as timekeepers at a number of the royal palaces.