Golden coffee service

The table centerpiece in silver, gold and enamel is embellished with more than 5,600 diamonds and many colored stones and rises a pyramidal form to unite a total of 45 vessels forming a baroque "Gesamtkunstwerk" par excellence. Its programme of imagery is devoted to the depiction of the four elements which appear in the engraved serving dishes, the glass flagons, the rinsing bowls and in the motifs of the cups and saucers. The ivory figures personifying water (Neptune, the sea deity), the earth (Ceres, the goddess of agriculture), the air (Mercury, the god of trade and commerce) and fire (Minerva, the Roman goddess of science and art who was equated with the warlike Athena) are placed in a prominent position.