Vienna Circa 1780: An Imperial Silver Service Rediscovered

Koeppe, Wolfram (2010)

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Description

Eighteenth-century European court society was defined by its lavish banquets featuring complex settings and protocols designed to indicate the status of both hosts and guests. Integral to these events were extravagant dining services of silver and gold, many of which were subsequently melted down to suit changing fashions or to replenish depleted treasuries. Vienna Circa 1780: An Imperial Silver Service Rediscovered presents a rare surviving ensemble that exemplifies princely dining at its most splendid.

The service was made in Vienna from about 1779 to 1782 by Austrian master goldsmith Ignaz Joseph Würth for members of the Imperial Habsburg family, Duke Albert Casimir of Sachsen-Teschen and his consort, Archduchess Marie Christine of Austria. The so-called Second Sachsen-Teschen Service originally comprised hundreds of items, including wine coolers, tureens, dishes with cloches, saltcellars, candelabra, candlesticks, and serving implements, as well as more than twenty-four dozen silver plates and porcelain-mounted silver and gilded-silver flatware. Albert and Marie Christine displayed these magnificent pieces proudly in banquets they hosted as joint governors of the Austrian Netherlands from 1781 to 1793.

Last seen by the public at the beginning of the twentieth century and once believed lost, the ensemble has been partially reunited in this book—and the exhibition it accompanies—and placed in the context of contemporary silver work from other European cities. In the process, Wolfram Koeppe surveys the heady atmosphere during what has been called the Golden Age of Ceremony and traces dining etiquette during its transition from the elaborate parade buffets that incorporated ostentatious displays of silver treasures to the slightly less-cumbersome service à la française, which allowed for all dishes in a particular course to be placed on the table at once. Hosting an appropriately grand and socially correct banquet further entailed carefully conceived seating plans and napkins folded in elaborate shapes intended to reflect the relative hierarchy of the guests.

The author also traces Vienna's rise as a cultural center in the late eighteenth century, an accomplishment in which the Würth dynasty of goldsmiths figured prominently, and he compares that family's achievements with those of other European masters, including the famous Germains of Paris and Luigi Valadier of Rome. In addressing each element of the service itself, Dr. Koeppe explores the ways in which Würth drew from a variety of influences to create a decorative style uniquely his own. The result demonstrates how Würth melded the reigning French Neoclassical style with purely Viennese elements—such as a vigorous design, a sparkling play of textures, and the juxtaposition of classical elements with whimsical sculptural details—and established Vienna as a major center of the Neoclassical goldsmith's art.

Table of contents

Director's Foreword
Thomas P. Campbell

Preface and Acknowledgments

Imperial Aspirations and the Golden Age of Ceremony

From the Credenze zur Parade to the Service à la française: The Silver Service in Europe during the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century

Amor Vincit Omnia (Love Conquers All)

The Germains of Vienna: The Würth Dynasty of Goldsmiths

The Rise of Vienna as a Cultural Center

Establishing a Viennese School of Decorative Arts

The Goldsmith as Sculptor in Bronze

The Development of Viennese Neoclassicism

The Second Sachsen-Teschen Service Rediscovered

Large Tureens
Sauce Tureens
Dishes with Cloches
Ewers
Salts
Candlesticks and Candelabra
Wine Coolers
Serving Dishes and Dinner Plates
Flatware and Serving Pieces

The Fate of the Second Sachsen-Teschen Service

The Silver Service in Brussels

Epilogue: Founding a Cultural Legacy

Notes
Works in the Exhibition
Bibliography
Index
Photograph Credits

About the authors

Wolfram Koeppe is Curator, Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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Exhibition

Vienna Circle 1780: An Imperial Silver Service Rediscovered

Following the acquisition in 2002 of a pair of wine coolers from the Sachsen-Teschen Service, the core of the surviving parts was discovered in a French private collection. This superb ensemble was last displayed at the beginning of the twentieth century. Wine coolers, tureens, cloches, candelabra, candlesticks, dozens of plates, porcelain-mounted cutlery, and other kinds of tableware, totaling more than three hundred items, represent the splendor of royal dining during the ancien régime. It was made for Duke Albert Casimir of Sachsen-Teschen (1738–1822) and his consort, Archduchess Marie Christine of Austria (1742–1798), daughter of Empress Maria Theresa, by the Imperial court goldsmith Ignaz Josef Würth. The Sachsen-Teschen Silver Service, an embodiment of Viennese Neoclassicism, is shown in the context of contemporary silver from other countries.

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