The Silver Collection holds an exceptional collection of various bronze centrepieces. At formal evening dinners after sundown, the tables were lit with candelabra. The metal centrepieces and above all the mirror plateaux reflected the candlelight, intensifying the splendour of the tables set with all their finery. The fashion of bronze-gilt centrepieces originated from Paris, the centre of artistic bronze founding, around 1800. Foremost among the producers that established themselves in Vienna were Johann Danninger and later the company of Hollenbach.

Several Empire centrepieces in the Silver Collection in neo-Egyptian style are the product of the Egyptomania that arose as a result of Napoleon’s military campaign there from 1798 to 1801. The centrepieces bear no maker’s marks. It has still not been established whether they came from the Habsburg court household in Lombardy-Venetia or were made by court bronzeworker Johann Georg Danninger, a pioneer in Vienna of specialized bronze table decor. 

The Old French centrepiece with sculptural neo-Renaissance elements consists entirely of mirror plateaux and was commissioned for Emperor Ferdinand I in Paris in 1838. Its maker is unknown. There was very little time for work on preliminary designs before the coronation, leading to fears that local bronze manufacturers could not be relied upon to produce a suitably magnificent centrepiece in time for the celebrations. A few years later, in 1843 and 1846, the Viennese court bronze manufacturer Johann Danninger was commissioned to make further plateaux in the same style to extend the Parisian centrepiece. 

The older bronze centrepieces at the Viennese court were designed for large-scale banquets. In 1856 Archduchess Sophie, mother of Emperor Franz Joseph I, commissioned the Archducal Centrepiece, which was also suited to smaller gatherings of ten to sixty guests. The first pieces, decorated with dragons, were executed after a design by Josef Storck at the bronzeware manufactory of David Hollenbach. Produced in an industrial process, the pieces made in 1856 are notable for the exceptional quality of their finishing. Hollenbach presented the round plateau together with the main centrepiece at the 1867 Paris World’s Fair, winning a gold medal. 

As the Archducal Centrepiece with its pieces of differing sizes could be assembled in a modular fashion, it was frequently in use, and even expanded for the marriage of Crown Prince Rudolf in 1881. The newer pieces, produced by Hollenbach’s nephews Ed. & F. Richter, display an extended repertoire of grotesque ornamentation and can be recognized by their chimera figures. Parts of the centrepiece are still supplied today by the Silver Collection for banquets held on the occasion of state visits.