François Linke
A Very Fine Louis XVI Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Marquetry Commode
£85,000
A Very Fine Louis XVI Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Marquetry Commode after a model by Jean Henri Riesener, By François Linke. Linke Index No. 10. Signed...
Dimensions
Height: 94 cm (38 in)Width: 167 cm (66 in)
Depth: 65 cm (26 in)
Description
A Very Fine Louis XVI Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Marquetry Commode after a model by Jean Henri Riesener, By François Linke.
Linke Index No. 10.
Signed ‘F. Linke’ and the lock-plate stamped ‘CT LINKE SERRURERIE/PARIS’.
This fine mahogany commode has a fleur de pêcher marble top above a breakfront frieze set with three drawers, over a pair of drawers with a unified central panel of floral marquetry and trophies within a gilt-bronze frame, flanked by panels of foliate parquetry. The apron is mounted with finely cast acanthus and the scroll-mounted legs put down on block feet.
France, Circa 1900.
Defined by its exquisite inlay-work of precious timbers and finely wrought gilt-bronze mountings this commode is exemplary of François Linke’s production. In the tradition of the finest ébénistes of the period Linke derived the model from an eighteenth century forebearer, Jean-Henri Riesener, who was ébéniste de Roi to King Louis XVI of France. Riesener’s commode is preserved in the château de Fontainebleau and part of France’s national art collection.
Riesener’s commode was so admired and famous in the nineteenth century that the great ébénistes of the day replicated it with phenomenal exactitude. Replicas are recorded firstly by Charles-Guillaume Winckelsen and his successor Henry Dasson, and later in the nineteenth century by Alfred Beurdeley, as in the case of the present example, François Linke.
A popular model in Linke’s oeuvre, he produced a number of variations in different sizes, under index numbers 10, 104, 886, 1036 and 1437. The present example is Index no. 10 which at 170 cm wide is identical to the original Reisener model. Linke had himself acquired the rights to make this commode by purchasing a set of patterns for this model from the workshop sale of the ébéniste Cueunières in November 1902 for 209 francs.
The importance of the model in the canon for French furniture cannot be overstated. The central marquetry panel is a still-life of a vase and ewer beside a basket overflowing with fruit. It is an allusion to the mythological excesses of Bacchus. This is part of the neoclassical design of the whole which has come to characterise what is referred to as ‘the Louis XVI style’. The distinctive repetition of stylised rosette and interlaced lattice work parquetry, punctuated by fine floral marquetry panels and gilt-bronze mounts, is redolent of some of the most celebrated examples of Riesener’s oeuvre.
Related commodes by Riesener famously include an example returned to Versailles in 1999 following its acquisition at auction in London for a record price of £7 million.
With reference to other nineteenth century versions of this important model, this example by François Linke is most highly prized by collectors because Linke’s name, as the most famous ébéniste of the Belle Epoque, adds considerable cachet and therefore value.
Date
Circa 1905
Origin
France
Medium
Gilt-Bronze and Marquetry
Signature
Signed 'F. Linke' and the lock-plate stamped 'CT LINKE SERRURERIE/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.
Christopher Payne, François Linke, (1855 – 1946), The Belle Époque of French Furniture, Antique Collectors’ Club, (Woodbridge, UK), 2003. p. 205-206.
Pradère, Alexandre. French Furniture Makers: The Art of the Ebeniste from Louis XVI to the Revolution, Oxford University Press; pages 371 – 388.