Eating & Drinking

The increasing demands on furnishing and decorating also led to the development of a new dining culture. In medieval times, there were the Tischzuchten, which were texts and books about table manners. In the following centuries, numerous utensils made of glass, ceramic and porcelain were created for the plating and serving of food.Our ceramic collection comprises around 400 vessels, busts and sculptures. The majority come from Austria, but other regions of Europe are also represented. A special position is given to Viennese porcelain, which, like the legendary Meissen porcelain, enjoyed great popularity in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A series of richly decorated cups demonstrates the superior quality characteristic of the chinaware of the imperial manufactory around 1800. 

The Schaudepot also contains an abundance of jars, mugs, bowls, tureens, plates, pots, vases, saltshakers and sugar bowls. They speak to the importance of the regional pottery industry and the wide variety of decoration employed by local artisans. Particular importance is given to our glass collection: it includes around 1,100 pieces from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. Finds from the Roman Period suggest that glass was already being manufactured in Styria around 1,800 years ago. Our collection contains a good number of pieces from the Biedermeier period, in which many new techniques were developed to satisfy the bourgeoisie’s passion for collecting. Particularly popular at the time were mugs decorated with views of cities and landscapes and still lifes of flowers and animals.

A separate area of the room is devoted to cutlery: in the Middle Ages, the spoon was the eating utensil of simple people and children. With the refinement of table manners, the cutlery, which was kept in a separate case and brought along on trips, was at first a valuable accessory of the upper class. Increasingly manufactured in large quantities, the knife, fork and spoon soon found their way into middle-class homes, too.