Vienna Hofburg - Imperial Apartments, Sisi Museum, Silver Collection

In 1777 Emperor Joseph II visited his sister, the French queen Marie Antoinette, at Versailles. On his return he brought with him a total of 500 costly porcelain objects from Sèvres, including the apple-green dinner service and four magnificent tureens, three of which have been preserved in the Imperial Silver Collection. The round Olio tureen – used for a nourishing soup – and the two soup tureens have four curving legs and rest on stands. The sculptural gilded decoration representing sheaves of corn together with the fruit, agricultural produce, flowers, eggs, sea creatures as well as gardening and agricultural tools painted in the medallions, symbolise fertility and the fruitful cultivation of Nature. www.hofburg-wien.at | Download Tour-Guide (PDF)© by Schloß Schönbrunn Kultur- und Betriebsges.m.b.H.