Clocks of Topkapi Palace

Birdcage Clock (below)

Topkapı Palace is currently home to one of the world’s rarest mechanical clock collections. The palace now displays its 380-piece collection of clocks, all of which were produced in a period of 400 years, in a permanent exhibition titled “Topkapı Palace Clock Section.” The exhibit also includes works by Turkish clock masters. The permanent exhibition housed in the palace’s Divit Room with 380 clocks on display, most of which were kept behind closed doors until recently. 


See also : Topkapi’s Turkish Timepieces  by Paul Horton

"As in medieval Europe, where the first geared clocks are believed to have appeared in monasteries to help regulate the daily prayer services, so in Istanbul the first Turkish clocks were made in thetekkes, or monasteries, of the so-called "Turkish monks," the Mevlevi Dervishes, better known to Westerners as the "Whirling Dervishes." The Mevlevis were considered the most intellectual of the Dervish orders and were well known for their interest in music and the arts. They acquired an interest in making mechanical clocks, their elders now suggest, to help initiates of the order observe fixed prayer times during long periods of meditation."


Mavi Boncuk | 


Turkish Clocks of Topkapi Palace Collection: 


The earliest Turkish clocks are dated to the 17th century and are fine examples of the craftsmanship of the period. Although clocks were made in and around the Ottoman capital during the 15th and 16th centuries, these four clocks, the work of craftsmen named Bulugat, Sahin, Abdurrahman and Mustafa Aksarayi are the earliest surviving examples in the collection. 


The silver, horizontal movement table clock of Mustafa Aksarayi and Sahin Usta's clock cases are among the finest artefacts of the period. The late 17th century Seyh Dede pocket watch elliptical fob (sash) watch calender is one of the finest of its type. ,18th century Turkish clocks were influenced by English time-pieces in form, as seen in the work of the master craftsmen Zihni, Edirneli Ibrahim and Osman. The collection also possesses the only signed Zemberekcioglu clock from that century.


Ahmet Eflaki Dede was sent to Paris by the court in the 19th century to learn new skills in clockmaking. We have only one of his clocks in the collection, but there are a number of time-pieces made by his student followers Mehmed Sukru, Huseyin Hakki and Suleyman Leziz, who were among the leading craftsmen of their time. 


Skeleton clocks are in the majority among the Turkish 19th century time- pieces, while Ismet Usta, who worked at the court of Abdulhamid I, produced pedestal clocks of the English type. The jointly-made walnut consol (bracket) clock dating to the reign of Abdulhamid II is a fine example of the woodwork and inlay of the period.