Banquet service of the prince-bishop of Hildesheim, Friedrich Wilhelm von Westphalen
Bernhard Heinrich Weye
Augsburg, between 1761 and 1763
Silver
72,5 x 73,0 x 59,0 cm
Inv.-Nr. 81/216
Acquired in 1981 and 1995
Gallery 91
The largest 18th-century German silver service to have been preserved is this one from the Hildesheim court. Finding his residence at Hildesheim bereft of plate when his tenure began in 1763, Prince-Bishop Friedrich Wilhelm von Westphalen immediately commissioned a suitably elegant silver service in Augsburg. Only a few months later two silver agents from that city delivered this service with its numerous pieces to the Prince-Bishop's court. When the Hildesheim Hochstift – the secular territory under the jurisdiction of the prince-bishops – was disbanded in 1802, the service was left to the last prince-bishop. After his death in 1825 it came into the possession of the House of Guelph. In 1981 the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum succeeded in acquiring the nucleus of this vast service. Now exhibited with 30 place-settings, the service is displayed, following historical plans, as if the table were set for a first course. The carefully graduated composition culminates in centre-pieces by Bernhard Heinrich Weye, which are among Rococo art’s most brilliant achievements.
des Bayerischen Nationalmuseum
des Bayerischen Nationalmuseum
