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Composed of over fifty pieces, varied in typology and style, the clocks of the Peles National Museum's horological collection come from the royal collection; most of the pieces were purchased by King Carol I of Romania, known for his punctuality. The collection also includes clocks of Queen Maria, King Carol II and a clock received by King Michael.
The clocks are diverse in typology, covering a wide range of models, from pendulum clocks - floor and wall - to clocks - cartel, miniature clocks or console, fireplace and table clocks; the collection also includes several alarm clocks and pocket watches. Chronologically, the watch pieces fall between the 18th and 20th centuries, most of them dating from the end of the 19th century. Stylistically, most pieces belong to the historical style in the German and Italian Renaissance, German Baroque, Rococo and Neoclassicism, Empire and Art Nouveau styles.
An important segment of the current collection is the watches that belonged to members of the Royal House. One such piece is the German-made pendulum table clock, which has always been in the study of King Charles I. Architecturally shaped, decorated with allegorical characters and grotesque masks, cast in silvered bronze, the clock is a serial piece, typical historical, frequently found in the neo-renaissance interiors of Europe from the end of the 19th century.
Manufactured by the famous watchmaking company, Philippe Patek from Geneva, after 1881 the pocket watch of the first King of Romania is a special order, extremely valuable both due to the brand and the solid gold case, engraved on the obverse cover with the monogram,, EC '', surmounted by the dark crown and encrusted with diamonds and rubies.
The watch tie also belonged to King Carol I, who purchased it at the beginning of the 20th century. Made of wood, with a silver-clad handle, decorated with the royal crown, the tie is ingeniously provided with a tiny Patent clock, with a circular dial and Roman numerals in black enamel.
Made by the Aron Herscovici workshops, the table clock in rectangular bronze plate, framed in the box, in the form of a triptych, has documentary value due to the reference to a significant historical event, constituted by the return to the Romanian throne of King Carol II- lea on June 8, 1930, according to the inscription under the dial and the monogram surmounted by the royal crown, executed according to the drawings of A. Bordenache.
Manufactured in 1936, in Romania, with cast chrome frame and base, with a movable rectangular dial, with an arched upper side and a dial supported by two cylindrical lacquered wooden supports, the table clock, engraved on the support with the inscription,, 8. XI. 936 HUNTERS FROM THE 2ND MOUNTAIN HUNTER'' represents a gift received by King Michael on the occasion of his name day and at the same time, the only watch from the collection of the Peles National Museum that belonged to the last sovereign of Romania.
the most significant part of the entire collection is the clocks manufactured in Germany and Austria (over thirty pieces), an aspect justified not only by the origin of the royal dynasty, but especially by the special advantage that the field in the mid-19th century discussion in the region of the Black Forest Mountains,
Although faithful to the German tradition, under which he placed the entire architectural and decorative project of the summer residence in Sinaia, King Carol approached the "noble" production of the era, the "court" pieces, more precisely, those typologies inspired by the recurrence of historical models.
The clock, as a mark of Western civilization, is part of the interior decoration of the castle, either by incorporating it into the fixed furniture, as an integral part of it, or by placing it as an independent object, both in the official space and in the private of the royal court.
Within the collection, an important segment is represented by the ten French watches, varied in style and material, from which three watchmaking pieces stand out, important by the famous watchmaking brands: Samuel Marti, AD Maugin and Commun& Manceau.
At Peles Castle, in the Yellow Room or the Prime Minister's Apartment, an elegant piece of horology is kept, more precisely, a table clock, whose mechanism is inscribed in French, "Samuel Marti". Medaille d'or Paris. 1900". The case represents a draped mythological female character, with a snake and a mirror, probably a neoclassical embodiment of the goddess Venus, gracefully resting on the circular face of the clock. The double pedestal made of white marble and bronze, decorated with a Greek wave betrays influences of the late Louis XVI style.
One of the most artistically accomplished pieces of horology in the royal collection is the mantel clock, whose mechanism with rotating discs was made by the famous Parisian workshop, AD Mougin. The Sèvres biscuit case, representing the "Three bars" is a 19th century replica of a statuary group made a century earlier by Falconet.
The small salon of the Imperial Apartment in the Peles Castle houses a valuable original piece, a mid-18th century roll-top desk, made of wood veneered with exotic essences, decorated with Régence motifs in gilded bronze, whose balustrade is supplemented with a clock in a wooden box, provided with a rear barometer, surmounted by a bronze female bust, in the costume of the Louis d'Orléans period.
The historic variant of the neoclassical style is represented in the Peles Castle collection by a beautiful mantelpiece in Sèvres blue porcelain with gold accents, consisting of a clock with a circular base, which includes the mechanism, on which, in a playful attitude, a Cupid sits winged, with trumpet. The two candlesticks depict two cupids, holding the bobesa.
French neo-Empire clocks are present in the museum's heritage thanks to a pendulum table clock, which completes the decoration of the Great Salon of Josephine of Baden's Apartment located on the "noble floor" of Peles Castle. A combination of marble and gilded bronze, in the shape of a pavilion, surmounted by an eagle in ronde-bosse, with open wings, the symbol of Napoleon I's imperial power, it is the piece of clockwork, the closest in artistic representation to the original style.
The table clock located in the Pelisor Castle Bedroom, the residence of the couple Ferdinand - Maria, is part of a table service, along with two vases for flowers. The clock case, made of polychrome tile, by the Edmé Samson workshop in Paris, in the Dutch manner of the Rosenburg manufacture in The Hague, is a classic example of Art Nouveau design, due to its undulating shape and floral and avimorphic decoration in green and brown.
Varied in typology, support and quality, the royal collection from Sinaia reflects the fluctuations and searches of a world, which hesitates between historicism and the modernity of Art 1900, but which gradually assumes the idea of change and technological progress.