FRANCE / CAPETIANS - FRANCE / ROYAL Louis XV (1715-1774). Medals for the houses of Bourbon-Orléans and Bourbon-Spain, set of 10 medals (9 out of 10 in the series, and 1 lead print) by F. de Saint-Urbain ND (before 1731), Nancy. Av. Effigy of the Duke, au naturel, with his titulature (the first of Élisabeth-Charlotte, the next eight of the regent Philippe d'Orléans and the last of Philippe V of Spain); signature S. V sometimes. Rv. Various allegorical motifs; signature S. V. Beaupré, 1867, series III; Bronze - c.35 g - 44 to 55 mm - 12 h Series reconstituted by collection (the 2nd missing), with some differences in patina and quality, one gilded copy (the 10th). A lead print of the 8th is attached. Overall, superb. Ferdinand de Saint-Urbain (1654 [or 1658]-1738), a native of Nancy, came from a family of apothecaries and goldsmiths. He started out as a draughtsman and architect, and left for Rome where he became engraver and architect to Pope Innocent XI, then Alexander VIII or Innocent XII. He returned to Lorraine in 1703 to join the Academy of Painting and Sculpture created by Duke Leopold. In 1704, he was director of the Monnaie de Lorraine in Nancy until his death. At that time, Duke Léopold commissioned him to make a "Médaillier des Ducs de Lorraine", a uniformly-crafted reminder of the metal history of King Louis XIV. He was assisted in this work by his children Claude-Augustin and Anne-Marie, whom he trained. Saint-Urbain's main concern was to produce truthful portraits. The excellence of his work earned him the term "opera divina" from the Italians. Based on the model of the Médaillier des Ducs de Lorraine, Saint-Urbain went on to create other series: les grands travaux de Lorraine or médailles particulières de Lorraine (IIe série), les Bourbons-Orléans (IIIe série), les Hommes illustres (IVe série), les Papes (Ve série, which remained unfinished). His work also includes numerous engravings of coins for the popes mentioned and the Duke of Lorraine, as well as various tokens and medals. The bibliography on Ferdinand de Saint-Urbain is extensive, and the artist has been cited in numerous articles (J. Jacquiot, S. de Turckheim-Pey, Medaglia 22, 1987 and H. Collin in 1997, who provides a bibliography), but since M. Beaupré's work in 1867, no catalogue raisonné seems to have been produced, and the latter remains useful for classification.