The Silver Collection at the Hofburg is probably one of the most dazzling collections of tableware in the world, attesting to the enormous wealth and tastes of the Hapsburg monarchs.
The Silberkammer is actually a misnomer: there are also porcelain, glassware, crystal, and table linen. Spread out in glass cases across a series of rooms, the collection once formed an important part of the Imperial household’s possession. Vast quantities of silver even went with the emperor on campaigns, holidays, and hunting expeditions. And yes, there were trunks and containers especially designed for the staff to carry the dining gear around.
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| The Chinese collection |
Inside the museum, there are dishes, kitchen utensils, even handwritten recipes, menu cards and shopping lists from the Imperial kitchens. There is Maria Theresa’s personal cutlery (of solid gold); a set of `duck squeezers’ used to extract meat juices, which were boiled for Sisi’s consumption (she was obsessed with dieting, and maintained a waif-like figure even after bearing three children); and an Oriental-pattern dinner service made for Emperor Maximilian of Mexico (Franz Josef’s brother; he never used the service, since he was executed in Mexico before it could be shipped overseas).
Here are a few of my personal favourites -
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| The former Silver & Table Room |
The 4,500 piece, 1,100 kg Grand Vermeil dinner service, of gilded silver. At one time, all courses (except soup and dessert) were served on silver; porcelain was considered too lowly. It wasn’t till the Napoleonic Wars when Austria was so impoverished that even the Imperial silver was melted down into coin, that porcelain became fashionable.
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| Fabulous gold centrepieces |
The table centrepieces that were used, with flowers, fruit and sweets, at banquet tables. One in particular- a gilded French ensemble, is 30 metres long and is a miniature tabletop Versailles, with its bowls, candelabras, and mirrors.
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| Exquisite craftsmanship from Stoke |
The Minton set, lace-like and perfect in bright blue and white, which was gifted by Queen Victoria. Decorated in floral patterns and made by the Minton Porcelain Manufactories in Stoke, the porcelain was never used because it was so fragile.
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| A piece from the Sevres dinner service |
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| The white 'flower plates' |
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| A Sevres tureen |
The `flower plates’ made especially for Franz Josef I, who was very fond of flora and fauna. Ono each of these plates is painted, in painstaking (almost botanically perfect) detail, a single flower.
