Henri IV and Louis XIII the beginnings of gun collecting

These two french kings, father and son, where not only very interested in hunting and nice guns,
but they are also considered to have been the first collectors of antique arms for their beauty and interesting design
and had them catalogued and exposed.

Todays famous Versailles Castle was not yet built, when the young King Louis XIII liked to go hunting in the
Versailles forests and had a smaller castle built on the site where todays splendid and vast castle can be visited.
Louis XIII was the father of the sun King Louis XIV who built todays huge castle around his fathers original hunting lodge.

Both these kings was very interested in weapons and weaponry, and had a gunsmith workshop with chimney and a smith
installed next to their quarters, where they had local gunsmiths working alongside them.
Louvre then was next to forests and marshland with game for hunting, and in earlier times wolves would have been active
on the doorsteps of the earlier castles on the site.The name Louvre may have a connection to the french name for wolf (Louve).
With active use comes need for immediate repairs. Nothing is left of this royal workshop today. Henri IV added a ca.400 meter long wing to his Louvre Castle along the banks of the river Seine, connecting the old Louvre Castle to the more recent Tuileries Castle. (Burnt down and destroyed about 1860). Half of that long wing building had 34 appartments installed, each of 4 levels with workshops and shops (echoppes) on ground level. The most famous artists in Europe, with their families, where installed in these appartments. From the beginning in 1606 many of these artist where gunsmiths, bladesmiths and metalworkers, and several of painter, engravers and metal casting sculptors also became involved as subsuppliers to both the gunsmiths and each other. Today we call this type of arrangements for "incubators" for business development!

Weapons from one of these gunsmiths  lodged in the Louvre are often signed "Aux Galeries du Louvre" or just "Aux Galeries" on the lockplate

build a French guns and pistols from the time period from Henri IV and his son Louis XIII
Francois DUCLOS, Louvre, Paris
Francois POUMEROL
THURAINE & Le HOLLANDOIS
Le LANGUEDOC, Paris
Bertrand PIRAUBE, Louvre, Paris

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