(Bernadotte Collection) - Nils Drejholt: Firearms of the Royal Armouries. 2.
 
Stockholm, Royal Armoury, 2007. Oblong 8vo. 376 pp. Very richly illustrated, partly in colour.
 
Publisher’s cloth, pictorial dustjacket. Very fine.
 
(Foreword:) ”This volume is the second in a series presenting the Royal Armoury’s collection of firearms. The first, published in 1996, dealt with royal armouries of the 17th and 18th centuries. The present volume describes firearms belonging to members of the house of Bernadotte, foremost among them in this respect being Karl XV (d. 1872), who bequeathed a very large collection of weapons to the nation. Also included are 19th century accessions of firearms from other, non-royal owners - guns which, for technical, artistic or biographical reasons, have been regarded as interesting additions to the royal collections. The Royal Armoury's collection of 19th century firearms amply reflects the great interest in weapons prevailing in Europe at that time. Large-scale collecting and the formation of collections containing weapons of different kinds became a fashionable activity. The collections were allotted prominent positions in the national museums which first saw the light of day during the course of the century. At the opening of Sweden’s Nationalmuseum in 1867, the collections of the Royal Armoury were on display there, along with other items deemed part of the nation’s cultural heritage. The collections housed in the Royal Armoury today are descended from the royal collections which existed at Stockholm Castle at the beginning of the 16th century. The weapons were stored in the Main Armoury and Royal Armoury, and other repositories included the Royal Wardrobe and the Royal Stables. Eventually these collections were brought together in the Royal Armoury, where they were subsequently augmented by royal donations. It was through Gustavus Adolphus in the 17th century that the Royal Armoury began to assume the character of a museum for articles recalling particularly dramatic events in Swedish history. The author of this book, First Keeper Nils Drejholt, heads the Collections Department of the Royal Armoury. [...]”.