The Peles National Museum’s collection of silver work and metal contains 5500 items of great artistic and documentary value. These items belonged to Romania’s kings and queens, to other members of the Romanian Royal House or to their contemporaries.

The kernel was formed by the items bought by King Carol I from different European, Oriental and American workshops, this demarche being continued by his successors. Bought to mark important moments from Romanian sovereigns’ lives, birthdays, births, marriages, commemorations, the valuable silver work items are testimony of the past.

The pieces were ordered in famous German workshops such as Nurnberg, Augsburg, Münich, Hanau, Dresden and Frankfurt. The items bear the stamps of Paul Telge, Edmund Wollenweber, Simon Rosenau, J.D. Schleissner, B. Neresheimer, Jacob Grimmimger and Herbert Zeitner – the Romanian Royal House suppliers.

Almost 30% of the collection is composed of German pieces: goblets, decorative beer jugs, tableware, decorative figurines, cigarette cases, horsewhips, photograph frames, droppers, hairpins, pens, dressing sets, engagement goblets, decorative plates.

The jubilee silver vase, richly decorated, work of Paul Telge from Berlin,  received by King Carol I at his 70’s anniversary, is one of the most important pieces of the collection.

The Royal collection was enriched by the sovereigns with remarkable pieces from London, Edinburgh, Sheffield, Birmingham and Chester workshops.

A large number of silver and gold items have been made by the silversmiths Eduard Barnarc, William Hutton, Martin Hall, William Cooper, James Rodgers, Frederick Bradford and Richard Hennel. Among these items, to be noticed, King Ferdinand’s christening cup, offered to him in 1865 by his godmother, Victoria, Emperor Friedrich III’s wife, and the cigarette case received in 1897 by the young princess Marie from her grandmother, Queen Victoria, with the occasion of her 60th Jubilee.

Other remarkable items are the cigarette case with blue enamel, bearing the signature of Marie and one of her travelling sets, received at her wedding with Prince Ferdinand and the cup with gilded cover received by King Carol II in 1937, after the restoration of the Royal Palace in Bucharest.

Among the commissions made by the Royal family, pieces ordered in France, in Paris, Dijon and Rouen workshops are to be found.

The craftsmen Tony Szirmai, Gustav Keller, Maurice Froment, Christofle, Antoine Cosson Corby enriched the metal collection with valuable pieces: letter cases, with inscriptions for King Carol I, silver cutlery bearing the Romanian Kingdom coat of arms, flower boxes, lampstands, plates, sugar bowls, milk bowls decorated with very fine rocaille motifs.

The objects made in Austria by the famous craftsmen Hartmann, Carl Heiss, Georg Adam Scheid, the ones made in Italy at Bologna, Rome, Milan, or at Brno – Czechia – and at  Lucerne – Switzerland- are also of high quality.

The Russian workshops, known for the quality and their specific techniques of metal manufacturing, are represented by the creations of Carl Faberge, Mikhail Evlampievici Perkhin, Anders Johansson, Ivan Khlebnikov, Aleksander Timofeevich Sheviakov and Alexander Egorov, who made various pieces such as decorative plates, goblets, desk sets, decorative vases ordered or received by the members of the Royal family, decorated with enamel and niello.

The collection is completed by Turkish, Chinese, Indian and Persian pieces, richly decorated with specific motifs.

Last but not least, magnificent items that impress by technique and decoration, created by the Romanian workshops and their artisans such as Josef Resch, Ferdinand Juillard, Alex Grunberg, Theodor Radivon, are to be noticed.