Cookie tin, around 1900
The Huguenot Etienne Cabos is born in 1737 in Caussade near Montauban in France. Due to the persecutions of his fellow believers, the Protestant is forced to flee, finding refuge in Germany. When and how exactly he arrives there is not documented. What is certain is that he marries the Berliner Justine Sircken, and together they leave Germany again in 1780 to move to Rotterdam. However, the couple, who by now have at least four children, finds themselves in dire economic straits there, leading the Cabos family to return to Berlin in 1790 to Justine’s family. A further son is born there in 1793. Ultimately, Etienne finds his livelihood here as a dentist. He dies in Charlottenburg in 1808. Etienne Cabos’s grandson, Carl Immanuel, establishes his own company in 1864 in the capital of the Habsburg Empire, the ‘First Viennese Cakes and Biscuits Factory Charles Cabos.’ Upon his death, his adopted son Christian Mörzinger-Cabos takes over the business. In the list of imperial and royal suppliers, shortly termed k.u.k., from the year 1899, Christian Mörzinger-Cabos is also listed as a ‘Wine, Tea, and Dessert Bakery.’ The k.u.k. suppliers were merchants in the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy who were permitted to deliver goods to the court in Vienna. Naturally, this could also be publicly advertised and promoted. A famous customer of Cabos was Empress Elisabeth, also known as Sisi. For example, she had confectionery delivered from Vienna to Corfu, where she commissioned the construction of a Greek palace in Pompeian style, the Achilleion, between 1889 and 1891.
