Browse Items (27 total)

Salle d'Armes Cain was founded by Gatechair, veteran of the First Empire and former president of l'Academie d'Armes. The salle was located on the passageway to the Opéra Le Peletier, site of Felice Orsini's January 14, 1858 assassination attempt of…

The Cercle des Mirlitons was a society or club of fencers, 125 strong, composed primarily of artists, the most famous being Charles Auguste Émile Durand.  The name "Mirlitons" could be in reference to the eunuch flute, a French woodwind instrument…

Salle d'Arms du Figaro was established in a vacant first floor room of the Parisian Le Figaro newspaper with the keen permission of Hippolyte de Villemessant, Le Figaro's patron. The journalists, editors, clerks, and cashiers desired a salle…

Louis Mérignac, born 1846, was the eldest son of Maître d'Armes François Mérignac. Louis was not always a fencer, however. He first tried sculpting, though inevitably his father all but obliged Louis to put foil in hand. Despite his initial apathy to…

Mimiague le Bearnais was a pupil of Jean-Louis, an artillery regiment's maître d'armes, and, at some time, in the Zouaves. Mimiague founded his salle d'armes on Rue Richelieu in 1862. Upon Mimiague's death in 1883 the salle relocated to Rue du…

Salle Rouleau was located on the first floor of a hotel and featured high ceilings, "old-style" woodwork, and a collection of arms donated by Nicholas Maximilianovich de Beauharnais, Duke of Leuchtenberg. The salle was founded by Maître d'Armes Pons…

The first French Academie d'Armes was founded and protected by Charles IX (b. 1550 d. 1574) and was abolished in 1789. The new Acadamie d'Armes pictured here was founded in 1887 and composed of twenty-two of the most prominent fencing masters of…