Ref.12316
Important fireback with the coat of arms of Germain du val

Beautiful fireback from the 16th century with fretwork contours. Under the central arch adorned with a leonine mask, two figures disguised as Mars and Venus are entwined. They are part of an architectural construction composed of a facade rhythmed with canephoric terms and crowned with a triangular pediment. The plaque bears the coat of arms of Germain Du Val, notary and secretary to the king from 1508 to 1533, Sieur du Mesnil en Vendômois, of Fontenay-en-Parisis, Bonneuil-les-Eaux, Lawarde-Mauger and La Hérelle. He was church warden of the church of Saint-Eustache in Paris. He died before 1641.

Ref.13030
Beautiful antique fireback with Albert de Luynes's coat of arms, 17th century

This beautiful antique fireback was made in the 17th century. It shows the coat of arms of the Albert de Luynes family hold by two savage men with a ducal crown, a peer coat and the king's orders. Born on December,25th 1620 in the Louvre and dead on the 10th of Octobre 1690 in Paris, Louis-Charles d'Albert de Luynes second duke of Luynes and peer of France, was a translator and moralist. He was the first one to translate in French the work of René Descartes. We also owe him many moral and devotion books. Son of Charles d'Albert, duke of Luynes, Louis XIII's favorite, and of Marie de Rohan-Montbazon, Louis-Charles d'Albert de Luynes was received to the parliament as a peer on November, 24th 1639 and as knight to the king's order on December, 31th 1661. He lived for a long time with the Solitaires of Port-Royal, building a castle in Vaumurier, very close to the Port-Royal-des-Champs Abbey where he received Blaise Pascal and the young Jean Racine. He was also distinguished on the head of his regiment attacked by the Spannish in Arras on August, 2nd 1640 and for many other occasions. After his death, his body was brought to the church of the hospital de Luynes that he founded and exhumed there. An identical fireback is kept on the hôtel Bouthillier de Chavigny, 7 rue de Sévigné à Paris, and illustrated on Philippe Palasi's book "Heraldic firebacks"

Ref.14338
Fireback, circa 1600, with the arms of Angélique d'Estrées

Ref.4985
Empire style mantel in Sea Green marble with detached columns