The first – and for many years the best – porcelain manufactory in Europe was established at Meissen in 1710. This Meissen service made around 1775 is striking for its exquisite floral painting. The shapes of the individual pieces are good examples of “Baroque Classicism”. While the bulbous tureens with finials in the shape of fruits still seem to belong to the Baroque era, the perforated fruit basket already displays elements of Classicism with its predilection for the formal repertoire of Antiquity.

The Old French Centrepiece was commissioned in Paris in 1838 on the occasion of Emperor Ferdinand’s coronation as king of Lombardy-Venetia in Milan. However, it is not known who made this piece. At court it was customary to keep large foreign commissions secret or to arrange them via the offices of the Grand Comptroller in order to avoid offending Viennese craftsmen. The centrepiece is made of gilded bronze. The rectangular mirror plateaus would have reflected the candlelight from the girandoles or candelabra. The figurative decoration and the soft, curving tendrils evoke an impression of elegant grandeur.

The second-oldest porcelain manufactory after Meissen was founded in Vienna in 1718. Although at that time porcelain was a sought-after and costly collector’s object, it was not yet considered worthy of being used at the imperial table, except for the dessert course. The fact that it became acceptable at court around 1800 is also due to the court table silver having been melted down to produce coins during the wars. In 1803 Emperor Franz ordered a porcelain service comprising 120 items for the court table, including 60 pictorial plates for dessert and 24 “panorama” soup plates of exceptional quality. The choice of motifs was both patriotic and Romantic. Framed by gold rims, the scenes include erupting volcanoes, icy glacier landscapes or imposing Viennese architecture – each plate displaying three views from Austria, Switzerland and Italy, executed by the best porcelain painters after old engravings, a painstaking task that took five years.

In the atrium is a display of “tambours” or bronze-gilt stands which held sweetmeats and decorated the imperial dining table. They belong to the New French Centrepiece acquired by the young Emperor Franz Joseph.

The Imperial Silver Collection owes its interesting and comprehensive collection of Far Eastern porcelain dating from around 1700 to Duke Alexander of Lorraine. Karl Alexander was the younger brother of Emperor Franz Stephan, the husband of Maria Theresa. He married the latter’s only sister, Maria Anna, in 1744. After the wedding the young couple moved to Brussels, where Karl Alexander became governor of the Netherlands. He was a keen collector, a habit which led to him accumulating large debts. After his death his nephew Emperor Joseph II was appointed executor of his estate, and he had a large part of the collection auctioned off in Brussels. The valuable Imari porcelain, however, was added to the court holdings in Vienna. Some of the surviving pieces represent an interesting symbiosis between Far Eastern and European culture. These porcelain plates and vessels from Japan and China were fitted with mounts by European silversmiths to adapt them for court use. Their blue, red and gold painted decoration is in the typical colours of Japanese porcelain of that epoch, which is known as Imari ware after the trading port it was exported from. The centrepiece in the form of a rocky landscape was probably made by a Viennese silversmith. Incense could be placed inside the base of the silver tree, with the aromatic smoke escaping through the holes in the trunk. The fruits made of Chinese enamel also contained fragrant essences.

The “Mundzeug” of Empress Maria Theresa is a set of eating implements made for the monarch’s personal use which accompanied her wherever she went. It comprises a knife, fork, serving fork and a spoon, with a small matching eggcup, an egg spoon with a marrow extractor, and a salt-cellar. Of solid gold, it was made around the middle of the 18th century. It was not until approaching the end of the 18th century that matching sets of cutlery with place settings in multiples of 12 came into existence, the number being derived from the 12 apostles. Uniform sets of cutlery then replaced the personal, individually designed sets of the imperial family.

The fact that almost no court table silver has survived from earlier periods is due to two reasons: on the one hand table silver was melted down and other objects made from it as soon as it showed signs of wear or was no longer fashionable, or its owner found himself in need of money. However, the main reason for silver being melted down at the end of the 18th century was the Napoleonic Wars. Nearly every silver object in Austria was melted down to produce coins. No exception could be made for the Court Table Silver and so it was also sacrificed to this end. The silver plates and dishes were replaced by porcelain services made by the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory. It was not until 1830 to 1835 that the Court Table Silver was gradually replaced. The commission for this went to Stefan Mayerhofer. Later the firm of Mayerhofer & Klinkosch and J. C. Klinkosch completed the service, which was enlarged considerably after the marriage of Emperor Franz Joseph to Princess Elisabeth in Bavaria in 1854.

This porcelain dessert service made by the Minton manufactory in England was one of the highlights of the Great Exhibition in London of 1851. Comprising 116 pieces, the service won the highest award for its aesthetic execution. Queen Victoria purchased the service and sent part of it as a gift of friendship to Emperor Franz Joseph. This fragile work of art with its unglazed biscuit porcelain figures and little custard cups was never used at the Austrian court, the brittleness of the material making this luxury item unusable for the purpose for which it was intended. This concludes the tour of the Imperial Silver Collection. Please proceed to the main building of the Hofburg where you can visit the Sisi Museum and the historic residential apartments of Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth.

The Emperor’s Staircase with its magnificent marble stucco decoration and bronze-gilt vases takes you up to the main floor of the palace. It was used by Emperor Franz Joseph to gain access to his apartments. The Hofburg was the residence of the Habsburgs for over six centuries and thus the centre of the Holy Roman Empire. In addition to its role as the seat of government and centre of administration, the Hofburg was also the winter residence of the imperial family. From the 18th century onwards, the court spent the summer mainly at Schönbrunn Palace.

In April 1854 the sixteen-year-old Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria travelled to Vienna to marry her cousin, Emperor Franz Joseph. After the wedding she moved into her suite of rooms in the Hofburg and entered the rarefied world of the Austrian imperial court. You are now entering the Sisi Museum. The displays in the following six rooms will allow you to explore myth and reality of the empress’s life. May we remind you that no photography is permitted from this point onwards.