The white and gold dinner service was ordered for his new household in Prague from the porcelain manufactory of the Counts of Thun at Klösterle in Bohemia.
The Dinner Service for Archduke Ferdinand Max, later Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, came to Vienna from Miramare, the archduke’s palatial villa near Trieste. The dinner service is a product of the Herend porcelain manufactory in Hungary, which
shortly after being taken over by Moritz Fischer in 1839 specialized in making copies of Chinese models. Initial contacts with the imperial court in Vienna in 1854 were successful: Franz Joseph purchased a tea service as a Christmas gift for his mother Archduchess Sophie. In 1864 a new service for Archduke Ferdinand Max was commissioned. Its Eastern Asian décor in the characteristic Imari colours was named ‘Miramar’ after the archduke’s residence.