The Napoleon III was a time of great economic prosperity. Paris, capital of great cultural influence, saw the birth of the big department stores that played a decisive role in the decorative arts. It was here that Queen Maria Pia acquired countless pieces of decorative arts, which are now part of the Palace holdings, particularly a few items of furniture described in this article. All the decorative richness and profusion of the Ajuda Palace, largely the responsibility of the Queen, illustrate an eclectic period, a time when the artistic milieu resorted to multifarious sources of inspiration, styles of the past, exoticism, naturalism, japanning ...