L’HÔTEL DES INVALIDES C. 1700 Large folio containing twenty-three plates (some double-page), 63 x 51cm Provenance: Carton House Library, Carton House Library label with family crest on inside cover On the 10th of October 1925, an advertisement in the Irish Times gave notice of an upcoming sale at Bennett & Son Auctioneers and Valuers, 6 Upper Ormond Quay, Dublin. ‘A highly important and valuable collection of works of art moved from Carton Co. Kildare…including – 8,000 ounces of silver plate…a gallery of paintings of considerable merit…coloured prints, old French and English furniture …; also the Library of scarce and interesting books. The whole forming the most important collection ever offered for Sale by Auction in this country.’ The sale took place on the 11th of November 1925 and included in the sale was this folio of etchings depicting plans, sections, and perspectives of the Hotel Royal des Invalides in Paris. Found on the inside cover of this folio is the heraldic bookplate of the Carton Library, inscribed elaborately and with two monkeys, a lion and the duke or earls’ cornet, along with the FitzGerald motto ‘Crom a boo’, an exclamation of defiance ‘To Victory’. It once belonged in the elegant book and painting lined library room in Carton House. For seven hundred years Carton House was the home of the Earls of Kildare and the Dukes of Leinster. The estate was lost by the FitzGerald’s when the third son of the sixth Duke sold his birthright to Lord Brockett to pay off an immense gambling debt, hence the sale of the Carton Library contents. In the 17th century, Louis XIV was the head of Europe’s greatest army. Aware that soldiers were the primary guardians of France’s greatness, the Sun King decided to erect a building for those who had served the royal army. The architect Liberal Bruant and later Jules Hardouin-Mansart were commissioned to create the Hotel Royal des Invalides. Today the impressive buildings contain the Musée de l’Armée, the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Église Saint-Louis-des-Invalides with its golden dome. Contained in the folio are engravings by Jean Le Pautre (1618-1682), Pierre Le Pautre (1652-1716), Gérard Scotin (1643 - 1715), Daniel Marot the Elder (1661 – 1752) and Jean Marot (1619-1679). Arguably this group of engravers were among the most significant figures in seventeenth-century France, particularly renowned for their production of architectural views of the Hotel Royal des Invalides.