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A selection of 18th-century silverware from the Matthéy Collection is on show in a large glass display case called the “Silver Cabinet”. Teo Matthéy (* 1901 +1989), born in Wuppertal, was a cloth wholesaler in Aachen who bequeathed his house at Theaterstraße 67 and his formidable art collection to the City of Aachen. The noble silverware reflects the tradition of baronial “silver cabinets” of early modern times while at the same time illustrating the high prestige in those days of the new hot beverages coffee, tea and chocolate, which were fittingly served in precious porcelain and silverware.

A particularly elaborate item in the collection is the English Tea Set by the London silversmith Samuel Taylor (1749), which features two tea caddies for Indian and Chinese tea and a lidded sugar bowl in a leather-bound wooden box with scrollwork. The collection also includes chocolatières with horizontal wooden handles in the typical bulbous form of Rococo embossed with rocaille ornamentation from France and Piedmont (Giovanni Fino, around 1780) and a large Louis-Seize coffee pot (probably from Brest, post-1780) with embossed garlands and cameo profiles of ancient emperors. A Meissen porcelain jug from around 1720 with silver mounting is an impressive example of sheer artistic perfection in the combination of the two precious materials silver and ebony.