Medeiros e Almeida House-Museum

About

The Medeiros e Almeida Museum is one of the most important Portuguese private decorative arts collections, gathered by the businessman, collector, and benefactor António de Medeiros e Almeida (1895–1986). The museum, housed in Medeiros e Almeida's former residence, a late 19th-century manor located in the centre of Lisbon, is divided into two distinct areas: the residential area that was kept as it was during the collector's lifetime, and a purpose-built museum on the site of the former garden – the new wing – that recreates 18th-century French style interiors. The museum's most striking quality lies in how different decorative elements have been harmoniously blended, from Chinese ceramics to Portuguese and French furniture, Dutch and Flemish paintings, watches and jewellery to textiles, silversmith, and fans.

The museum has twenty-seven rooms and around two thousand works of art, including furniture, painting, sculpture, textiles, jewellery, ceramics, fans and sacred art. The objects cover the second century BC to the 20th century.

The collection is representative of Medeiros e Almeida's eclectic taste, with four main collections standing out: one of Portugal's most important clock collections, an important collection of porcelain Chinese Ceramics, a large and unique silverware collection and a collection of decorative fans.

- A set of Han (206 BC-AD 220) and Tang (618–790) dynasties mingqi burial vessels;

- Seven Ming (1368–1644) dynasty, early 16th-century, porcelain vessels for the Portuguese market, known as first orders;

- A Qing dynasty, Qianlong period (1736–1795), c.1750–1760, marked imperial vase with auspicious decoration and the molded figures of two European tribute-bearers;

- Two Qing dynasty, Kangxi period (1662–1722) nefrite chime stones (sonorous stones), dated 1717, belonging to an imperial musical set;

- A rare Kangxi period, late 17th century, monumental six-panel, birthday gift, Coromandel lacquer screen decorated with poems and an inscription.

- A mid-17th century Gdansk, amber hourglass, signed: Michael Scödelock fecit;

- A rare c.1675-1685, night clock by the English royal clockmaker, Edward East (1602–1696);

- 1700, longcase, grandfather, month clock by Thomas Tompion (1639-1713);

- A curious c.1720-1730, flintlock system, table alarm clock made to the German market by Godfrie Poy (active 1718–1753);

- An 1807 pocket watch, table, and carriage clock that belonged to French general Junot and later on to the Duke of Wellington, by the master horology Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747–1823);

- Two Louis XIV ormolu-mounted tortoiseshell and engraved brass marquetry bureau Mazarin, c.1690, by French cabinet-maker André-Charles Boulle (1642–1732);

- A pair of rocaille commodes, 1720–1730, marked Antoine Criaerd (act. 1720–50);

- A “vernis-Martin” commode, 1745–1755, attb. to French cabinet-maker Pierre Roussel (1723–1782);

- A writing table (desk), 1854–1857, by the English cabinet-maker John Webb (1799–1880);

- A cartonnier desk, signed and dated 1892, by Joseph-Emmanuel Zwiener (1849-c.1925);

- “Mars & Venus”An ormolu-mounted “Mars & Venus” cabinet signed and dated by the French cabinet-maker François Linke (1855–1935), made for the Universal Exhibition of Paris of 1900 signed and dated 1900;

- A Louis XV style, ormolu mounted console by French cabinet-maker François Linke (1855–1935), signed LF, circa 1900.