French School

A charming view of a falconer or falcon seller playing a wind instrument and carrying 7 birds on a hoop suspended from his neck. The figure's turban suggests an Indian or Mughal origin for the wearer.

In France, falconry achieved its greatest development in complexity, scale and magnificence in the seventeenth century under Louis XIII. The king owned 300 birds, subdivided into six specialized équipages, for hunting the heron, the kite and the crow, the flight at the river, the flight at the partridge, and so on. Numerous paintings, tapestries and works of literature survive from this period. In the Indian sub-continent, falconry appears to have been known from at least 600 years BC. Falconry became especially popular with the nobility and the Mughals were keen falconers.