Here you can see a selection of copper vessels, pans and moulds which convey an idea of the range of different activities carried out in the court kitchens.

In the five rooms of the Old Court Silver and Table Room with its oak display cases dating from the time of the monarchy you will see individual items or pieces from Old Vienna, Hungarian and Bohemian services.

The crowning feature of the place setting is the napkin arranged in the elaborate “Imperial Fold”, forming a hollow enclosing a small bread roll.

Milan Centrepiece commissioned from the firm of Luigi Manfredini to mark the coronation of Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria as King of Lombardy and Venetia in 1838

These plates, some with a brown and others with a white ground, were used as dessert plates when the imperial dining table was laid with the Grand Vermeil Service.

From the beginning of the nineteenth century there was a tradition at the Viennese court according to which the emperor and empress washed the feet of twelve men and twelve women each year on Holy Thursday, in remembrance of the act of humility performed by Christ in washing the feet of his disciples.

This white and gold dinner service was acquired in 1851 for Emperor Ferdinand, nicknamed ‘the Good-Natured’ by the people, who abdicated from the throne in favour of his young nephew, Franz Joseph, and subsequently moved to the castle at Prague.

The ‘Green Bands’ Service was an exquisite gift given by the French king Louis XV to Maria Theresa to mark the renversement des alliances and the beginning rapprochement between the ruling Bourbon and Habsburg dynasties following the devastating Wars of Succession.

The Old French Centrepiece was commissioned in Paris in 1838 to mark the coronation of Emperor Ferdinand as king of Lombardy and Venetia in Milan.

Queen Victoria purchased the service and sent part of it (sixty-nine pieces) as a gift of friendship to Emperor Franz Joseph.