17th Century Fireplace Plaque With The Coat Of Arms Of France And Navarre

Heraldic fireplace plaque or "counterheart" with the arms of France and Navarre, 17th century. Cast iron. It features the royal arms under a closed crown and within a collar of the Order of Saint Michael, flanked by cherub mascarons, and surmounted and surmounting acanthus scrolls. The plaque is bordered by a frieze of ova and arrowheads. The bottom is worn. A similar plaque is kept at the Carnavalet Museum - History of Paris, and exhibited in the De Beaumarchais room. The arms of France are thus described in the Encyclopedia of Diderot and d'Alembert, in 1763: "Bears an azure shield, with three gold fleurs-de-lis, Navarre per pale, which is gules, with carbuncle stripes or gold chains placed in a cross, saltire and orle (...) covered with a gold crown (...) for supporters, two angels each dressed on one side in azure, one to the right of France, and the other to the left of Navarre (...) the shield surrounded by the order of St. Michael and the Holy Spirit". The first decorative contrecoeurs seem to have appeared at the end of the 15th century. Having the function of protecting the masonry from the heat of the hearth and of diffusing this same heat in the room, the plaques were quickly adorned with heraldic decorations. The golden age of the armorial contrecoeur dates back to the reign of Louis XIV. Royal plaques were then sometimes made on the models of famous ornamentalists, such as Philippe Caffieri. However, with the 18th century, the plaques first tended to reduce in size, then to become rarer. The Revolution, which saw the ban on the wearing of coats of arms, finally completed the vogue for heraldic counter-coats. ·


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