We have just been on a week-long rest and recreation to Portugal with friends. What a wonderful country! Friendly and helpful people, impressive nature, good food and wine
and all the cultural input you could ask for. We took a trip by car to the coast and to Tomar and Coimbra and ended the trip with some days in Lisbon.
As brocanteurs we are, of course, always interested in finding some extraordinary and valuable stuff. We didn’t, but had an entertaining morning, with tropical temperatures, at the Lisbon flea market Feira da Ladra.
There is a great variation in quality. From a couple of odd, broken items on a blanket to professional sellers with expensive goods. We did find some inexpensive, and in our opinion, interesting items
On our way back from the flea market I saw this real 3D piece of street art
When in Lisbon do yourself a favor and visit the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum. The Founder’s Collection of six thousand pieces is impressive with the most exquisite collection of items spanning from ancient Egyptian art, Greco-Roman art, Mesopotamia, the Islamic Orient, Armenia, the Far East to Dutch and English painting and eighteenth-century French decorative arts.
The collection of works by René Lalique bought by Gulbenkian directly from the artist, will most likely blow your mind and is rightly considered to be unique in the world for its quality and quantity.
At the entrance to the Collection you find Spring: Homage to Jean Goujon by Alfred-Auguste Janniot.
The Group sculpture was to become famous at the International Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts held in Paris in 1925, as a symbol of the Art Deco movement.
The group consists of three young women, Diana the hunter, two nymphs, a doe (a typical symbol of Art Deco), and various birds. Stylised flowers and fronds complete the composition. The decorative elegance of the group is further enhanced by the introduction of colour to the faces and hair of the female figures.
In the Modern Collection you will also find some interesting works, although, in my opinion, not as many as in the Founder’s Collection.
Globus Antik 