Art Déco was a popular design movement originally from 1910 until 1939 and took it's name from the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts held in Paris, in 1925. While revealing influences from several previous schools, Art Déco portrayed itself essentially as a modern decorative style, which combined rationality, functionality and formal simplicity. Nevertheless, many of the Art Déco designers rejected traditional materials for their work and chose instead more unusual, luxurious materials like ebony, steel, marble, lacquer and rare and expensive types of wood. This impressive collection comprises more than 300 pieces of furniture, paintings, statues, ceramics, glass and silverware and other decorative objects from some of the most famous Art Deco decorators like Lalique, Brandt, Perzel, Leleu, Porteneuve and Ruhlmann. The last being creator of the dining room in the Casa de Serralves in Porto, one of the finest examples of Art Deco architecture in Portugal.