The Hôtel de Monaco’s interior decoration

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**Clock from the mantlepiece of the great drawing room chimney**

Achille Jacques Fédel, circa 1840, gilt bronze

Private collection © collection M. et N. Uzal/collection particulière

Achille Jacques Fédel, the architect who refurbished the Hôtel de Monaco, also took charge of the mansion’s interior decoration. One of the first examples of eclecticism under the July Monarchy, its reception rooms were decorated in the Louis XIV and Louis XVI styles and the baron’s private rooms in the Neo-Renaissance style. Its fireplaces, lintels and ceilings were embellished with polychrome marbles, stucco and bronzes with a magnificence rivalling the most beautiful palaces. The mural decorations were painted by Philippe Comairas (1803-1875), a pupil of Ingres.

The mansion’s eclectic decoration was echoed by Baron Hope’s collections, a mixture of historic styles ranging from the Limoges enamel and Italian and German faience in the hall to the 17^th-century portraits on the staircase.