Picture the scene. You're the Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa, you've enjoyed a splendid 18th century banquet surrounded by the most powerful people in your domains and it's time to sort yourself out with a post-prandial pick of the teeth, a scrape of the tongue and a spoon of the ear.

Of course because you're the boss, your three personal hygiene implements – literally a pick, scraper and spoon – are solid gold. Along with a handle, they are stored in a small gold container in the shape of a cornsheaf, encrusted with 12 cut diamonds.

The after-dinner set – they were de rigueur in middle class Vienna let alone among the elite – will on Tuesday go on display at the Fitzwilliam museum in Cambridge, just one stunning object from the imperial treasury of the Habsburg emperors.

This is the first time so many pieces have been loaned to a British institution and it is only possible because of the closure of the Kunstkammer galleries in Vienna for refurbishment.

Most of the objects have no functional value whatsoever. They're designed just to be beautiful. "This is a wow show," said Victoria Avery, keeper of applied arts at the Fitzwilliam.

"Come prepared to be dazzled. You don't even need to read the labels, people will be blown away by the quality and variety of the objects."

All of the objects are unashamedly designed to demonstrate the almost unimaginable wealth and power of the Habsburg dynasty. From Rudolph II onwards, emperors would invite princely visitors to look at their cabinets of unique objects, whether art or jewellery or vessels.

There are objects in the show made from materials such as gold, agate, jasper, coral and ivory, many of which are almost impossibly detailed and intricate. "For me it is the skill of the makers," said Avery. "How did they do it? How did they have the patience to make these things."

The Cambridge show has a couple of firsts, one of which is the reuniting of two of the finest small sculptures ever to be carved from single hardstones – semi-precious stones.

The emperor Rudolph II, who moved the imperial court from Vienna to Prague in 1583, was an enthusiastic patron of the Miseroni family from Milan, the finest of any Renaissance hardstone engravers, and in particular Giovanni Ambrogio Miseroni.

A Miseroni statuette, Venus and Cupid, from Vienna will be shown alongside something of a lost masterpiece by the artist – Venus and Cupid Sleeping on a Shell. The piece was created for Rudolph in 1600 and somehow made its way into the collection of France's Cardinal Mazarin. Between 1796 and recently it has been unknown and untraced. Last month, it was sold for £1.5m at Sotheby's and the new owner has now lent it to the Fitzwilliam for the length of the show.

The Fitzwilliam is also displaying an object from its collection which found its way out of Vienna in murky circumstances. The small enamel, The Anunciation, from the mid-15th century, was first listed as part of the imperial collection in 1758.

There it remained for a century until a Hungarian antique dealer called Salomon Weininger co-ordinated repair work for it. He was, in truth, a rogue, and he made covert copies of the work, one of which he sent back while selling the original. At some point it was acquired – legitimately – by the English collector Leonard Daneham Cunliffe who gave it to the Fitzwilliam in 1937.

"It is rather nice that we can reunite it with its chums," said Avery, perhaps anxious to ensure no swapping back when the show finishes.

The Fitzwilliam's director, Timothy Potts, said bringing the show to Cambridge had been under discussion for two years and that the Vienna collection was important to the history of museums.

"The Vienna Kunstkammer provides a fascinating insight into how European princely collections have evolved, from medieval troves of relics to the 'cabinets of curiosities' of the Renaissance and early Baroque, eventually giving birth to the modern day museum."

Paulus Rainer, curator of the Kunstkammer, admitted it had been difficult choosing 60 objects from a collection of more than 10,000 and he hoped each of the exhibits would tell a small story.

The objects span 400 years of decorative art history and the Fitzwilliam has even bought new cabinets with non-reflective glass to best display them. While that may cause a few gently banged heads over the coming months, it undoubtedly adds to the experience of seeing such gorgeous, intricate objects.

• Splendour & Power: Imperial Treasures from Vienna is at the Fitzwilliam, Cambridge, 16 August – 8 January