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François Linke
A Fine Louis XV Style Vitrine By François Linke
£29,000
A Fine Louis XV Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Vitrine with a Breche d’Alep Marble Top By François Linke. Linke Index Number 208. This elegant vitrine...
Dimensions
Height: 164 cm (65 in)Width: 80 cm (32 in)
Depth: 41 cm (17 in)
PrintDescription
A Fine Louis XV Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Vitrine with a Breche d’Alep Marble Top By François Linke.
Linke Index Number 208.
This elegant vitrine has a moulded and shaped Brèche d’Alep marble top above a frieze centred by a finely cast gilt-bronze fronded acanthus mount. The bombe shaped glazed door is flanked by corresponding glazed side panels and uprights with finely cast acanthus clasps. The apron of the vitrine is mounted by a distinctive shell and acanthus mount with tendrils that extend over the glass door, characteristic of Linke’s finest works. The vitrine is raised on cabriole legs headed with foliate mounts and scrolled feet. The interior of the vitrine is fitted with three glass shelves and a mirrored back panel.
This rare vitrine is embellished with exceptionally fine gilt-bronze mounts. A notable feature is the unusual crab like scallop shell or coquille and acanthus mount, to the apron of the vitrine. The mount extends over the glazed area of the vitrine, which was a particular speciality of Linke and extremely difficult to execute. Many of his most important exhibition designs incorporate this feature, the best known being Linke’s chef-d’oeuvre, the astounding Grande Bibliothèque much praised at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle.
Date
Circa 1900
Origin
France
Medium
Boulle Marquetry Inlay
Signature
Signed to the reverse of the lock ‘CT LINKE/ PARIS’.
François Linke (1855 – 1946) was the most important Parisian cabinet maker of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and possibly the most sought after cabinet maker of his period.
He was born in 1855 in the small village of Pankraz, in what is now the Czech Republic. Records show that Linke served an apprenticeship with the master cabinetmaker Neumann, then in 1875 at the age of 20 he arrived in Paris where he lived until he died in 1946.
It is known that the fledgling Linke workshops were active in Paris in the Faubourg St. Antoine as early as 1881, and during this time he supplied furniture for other more established makers such as Jansen and Krieger.
The quality of Linke’s craftsmanship was unsurpassed by any of his contemporaries and reached its peak with his spectacular stand at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1900, where his Grand Bureau took the gold medal. He gambled his fortune and reputation on this stand, exhibiting several breathtaking items of furniture with sculptural mounts of the most exceptional quality and proportion. His gamble worked and his reputation was established to such an extent that Linke continued to be the pre-eminent furniture house in Paris until the Second World War.
As the Art Journal reported in 1900 on Linke’s stand:
‘The work of M. Linke … was an example of what can be done by seeking inspiration amongst the classic examples of Louis XV and XVI without in any great sense copying these great works. M. Linke’s work was original in the true sense of the word, and as such commended itself to the intelligent seeker after the really artistic things of the Exhibition. Wonderful talent was employed in producing the magnificent pieces of furniture displayed….’
The formation of Linke’s distinctive style was made possible by his collaboration with the sculptor Léon Messagé. Together Linke and Messagé designed furniture for Linke’s 1900 exhibition stand, with exuberant allegorical figures cast in high relief, that exemplified Linke’s ability to seamlessly merge the different mediums of wood carving, bronze and marquetry into a dynamic unified whole.
Today Linke is best known for the exceptionally high quality of his work, as well as his individualism and inventiveness. All of his work has the finest, most lavish mounts, very often applied to comparatively simple carcasses. The technical brilliance of his work and the artistic change that it represented were never to be repeated.
Bibliography:
Payne, Christopher. François Linke, (1855 – 1946), The Belle Époque of French Furniture, Antique Collectors’ Club, (Woodbridge, UK), 2003.
Meyer, Jonathan. Great Exhibitions – London, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, 1851-1900, Antique Collectors’ Club, (Woodbridge, UK), 2006; pp. 298 – 300.
Ledoux – Lebard, Denise. Les Ébénistes du XIXe siècle, Les Editions de l’Amateur, (Paris), 1984; pp. 439-43.
Revue Artistique & Industrielle, (Paris), July-August 1900.
Coral Thomsen, D. (ed), The Paris Exhibition 1900, The Art Journal, 1901; p.341.
