The Special Exhibit

In Byzantine Egypt, the business model of "delivery purchase" was particularly popular: the buyer paid in advance the price for a product that was only delivered at a later date. In the case of the wine delivery purchase here, the wine seller Aurelios Danielis confirms receipt of the full purchase price, the amount of which, however, is not stated at all. This is a striking feature, but need not be interpreted as some kind of deception; it is logical in that the price had already been paid, i.e. there was no outstanding debt. On the other hand, the seller's obligation to deliver the wine immediately after the harvest is regulated in considerable detail, together with a description of the quality of the wine. The large purchase quantity is remarkable, with 250 metra corresponding to about 1,350 litres.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, maps in the form of anthropomorphic or zoomorphic figures often contained political allusions alongside references to heraldry and mythology. The depiction of the 17 Dutch provinces in the form of a lion from 1656 was a look back into the past. The Leo Belgicus was a popular motif in Dutch cartography and here symbolises the former political unity of the Spanish Netherlands before the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648), in which the northern provinces won independence from Spanish rule. The lion looks south – towards the territories remaining under Spanish rule.

In the spring of 1846, spectacular flights by the balloon "Eagle of Vienna" caused a sensation in the Viennese press. Josef Franz Natterer from the famous family of scientists was also on board to take physical measurements. These balloon flights probably inspired the famous veduta painter Jakob Alt to create three views showing Vienna "from the balloon". It can be assumed that the then 58-year-old artist created the perspective of flight and sketched the city from an elevated viewpoint. The lithographs by Franz Xaver Sandmann show the views from the tower of St. Stephen's Cathedral and the Upper Belvedere. The perspective from the southwest is the only illustration to show a balloon hovering over the Prater, with a man in a top hat waving a flag from the basket.