BESANÇON, FRANCE.- The Musée du Temps in Besançon presents The King, The Emperor and the Clock - Masterworks from the Mobilier National, on view through December 31, 2006. The exhibition presents the most sumptuous clocks of the Kings and Emperors of France presented for the first time. The exhibition was curated by Marie-France Dupuy-Baylet, scientific curator, artistic inspector at the Mobilier national and Joëlle Mauerhan, chief curator at the Musée du Temps.

The exhibition at the Musée du Temps (Museum of Time) brings together some fifty sumptuous clocks brought out from the reserves of the Mobilier national (State owned furniture) and presented to the public for the first time. This historic collection that belonged in the past to the Crown’s Storage, is exceptional by its rarity and the origin of each piece: the bedroom furniture of Napoleon and the Empress, the living room of the King of Rome at the Tuileries palace, The Empress’ boudoir at the palace of Saint-Cloud. It perfectly represents a period that was rich in major artistic currents and it traces, from one Empire to the next, the century’s political history.

In the years that followed the Revolution and throughout the 19th century, clocks were in vogue like never before. The industrial revolution offered the possibility to produce in series. The mechanism changed to the round shape from the square one that was not sufficiently flexible to fit into the decor and adapt to the "subject". The great bronze artists of the time, such as Thomire, Galle, Barbedienne or Charpentier, signed the decors, while the most accomplished clock-makers such as Lepaute, Lépine, Le Roy, Bailly and Robin, strived to perfect the mechanism of the movements. The exhibition presents their most beautiful creations around four great themes: Love and renewal, Architecture and monuments, The Triumphant Empire, Between art and history.