Maison Mantin

Let's have a look inside the house/museum that I added to Quigley's Cabinet in January. For a closer look at the restoration of the house and its furnishings, you may wish to seek out the 1hr documentary L'énigme de la maison Mantin, which was filmed in 2007 (9th image) and broadcast on French TV when the museum opened to the public in November 2010.

IMAGES: 1) One of the many mounted animal specimens that Louis Mantin collected. 2) The restored fireplace, considered "strange and eclectic," features - from top to bottom - a sculpture of a woman's head, 2 ceramics of dead animals, a mirror, and a woodcarving of a devil fighting a dragon. 3) The lounge, arranged with Louis XV and XVI furniture and Italian artwork, has a patriotic candelabra and a window (center) into the next room. 4 and 5) The Pink (or Four Seasons) bedroom belonged to Louise Alaire, a married woman with whom Mantin had a 20-year affair. The room was lined with silk in a pattern called Les amours, and decorated with furniture in the style of Louis XV. 6) Mantin's bedroom, with walls covered in 18th c. French gilded leather. To give it a golden hue, it was covered with silver leaf and coated with yellow varnish. 7) Mantin's restored canopy bed. 8) The study in which Mantin housed his collections of antiquities.