FEATURES ARCHIVE

Sebastian Davies, Senior Director and International Head of 19th Century Furniture and Decorative Art at Christie's, talks to Ted Sandling about the rare beauty of this exhibition piece by François Linke.

Who was François Linke?
Linke is widely considered to be the foremost Parisian ébéniste of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was without doubt the most creative maker of his time and this, combined with the supreme quality of his workmanship, makes him the most sought-after name among collectors of the period.

Born of humble origins in 1855, in a German-speaking area of former Bohemia, Franz Linke spent his formative years apprenticing for a particularly exacting master cabinetmaker in his home town. Subsequently, he spent time working in the ateliers of established furniture-makers in Vienna and in various German cities which strengthened both his innate sense of self-discipline and technique.

But whilst these years provided the bedrock for his future successes, the ambitious Linke found the over-restrictive rules of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to be too stifling and after an initial ten-month sojourn in Paris in 1875 he was certain that was where his greatest opportunities lay.  

When did he move to France?
Adopting the Gallic version of his forename, François Linke settled in Paris in 1878, and set up as a cabinetmaker in 1881 with ateliers on the rue du Faubourg St-Antoine, the traditional heart of the French furniture-making industry. Unfortunately, his timing could not have been worse, for although France had been enjoying a period of expansion following the economic ravages of the Franco-Prussian War and turbulence of the resultant Paris Commune, his chosen profession was blighted by over-production, strikes and cheap foreign imports.  Against such a depressing backdrop, Linke’s survival during these early years was down purely to hard work and a unique quality of craftsmanship which elevated him head and shoulders above all but a few of the twenty thousand other furniture-makers in Paris alone.

Tell us more about his early years in Paris
Much of Linke’s early output focused on recreating and reproducing furniture of the ancien régime and, at this point, the inimitable style for which he is celebrated and which the Bahut Marine epitomises so magnificently, was not even in gestation.  With no swanky retail premises with which to woo private individuals and not yet having had the opportunity to showcase his work on the international exhibition stage, for the first nearly twenty years of his career Linke’s clients consisted mostly of other established furniture-makers, retailers and interior designers, all of whom would buy direct from his atelier and then sell on to their own customers. Thus, pre-1900, as a probable stipulation of these wholesale buyers, Linke’s furniture was rarely signed, at least not outwardly.

Like his peers, in producing a wide range of furniture heavily inspired by or taken directly from usually 18th century royal models, Linke was simply responding to prevailing tastes and attempting to satisfy a burgeoning demand amongst the middle class masses for the eclectic mix of ‘Louis’ styles, born of the Second Empire and adapted to suit contemporary conditions and needs. 

But Linke was keen to develop his own style?
Yes, for although financial necessity forced him to follow the trend for producing furniture in these earlier styles, at best Linke lamented its lack of originality and at worst he abhorred what he perceived as the muddled hybrids that such an unprecedented period of eclecticism spawned.  It was not for nothing that his years of apprenticeship were spent working thirteen or fourteen hour days, followed by evening classes in drawing and design. Linke’s skill box was replete with the necessary tools for success – craftsmanship, leadership and business acumen – but in a highly competitive and overcrowded environment, for true recognition and, as it has turned out, a permanent spot in the furniture-makers ‘Hall of Fame’, he needed to come up with something unique. From this realisation was born what became known as le style Linke.  

What was the style Linke that he unveiled at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle?
Essentially it was a clever fusing of the perennially popular Louis XV rococo style, whose revival had been first championed earlier in the century by the de Goncourt brothers, with the refreshing modernism of Art nouveau.  Key to the realisation of this new blend was the sculptor and designer, Léon Messagé, whose desire to bring a contemporary twist to the asymmetry of early 18^th century rococo corresponded with Linke’s own ideas for a unique and more modern style. Thus the two were to collaborate on all of the major ‘creations’ for the 1900 Exposition and subsequent exhibitions, with Messagé providing the designs and sculptural models for the sumptuous gilt-bronze mounts which have truly come to characterise le style Linke.

And was this instantly popular?
Extensive publicity for the 1900 Exposition Universelle and its coincidence with the staging of the Olympic Games in Paris ensured an extraordinary number of visitors through its turnstiles, almost fifty-one million to be exact - ten million more than the entire population of France at the time.  Thus, just like the host city, Linke achieved his own fervent aim of reaching out to a world market.  And it was truly international, with visitors to his stand including Royals, dignitaries and wealthy industrialists from all corners of the globe, many of whom went on to become among his most important clients.  

Both art critics and private individuals were unanimous in their praise of the revolutionary style Linke. One of the most influential among the former, Charles Dambreuse, summing up with the words: ‘L’Exposition de la maison Linke est le gros événement de l’histoire du meuble d’art en l’an de grâce 1900’. Another reviewer commented ‘These are museum objects…’, whilst the King of Sweden announced at the end of a lengthy visit to the stand ‘Messieurs. Je n’ai jamais vu d’aussi jolis meubles et c’est ce que j’ai vu de plus beau dans l’Exposition’. After such universal praise, it was hardly surprising that Linke was awarded the Médaille d’Or in his class.

The Bahut Marine was intended for the 1900 Exposition, but wasn’t finally completed until 1904, when it was unveiled at the St. Louis World Fair. Why was this?
The two-fold problem with Linke’s most exuberant exhibition pieces was that they were both hugely time-consuming and enormously costly to produce. For example, it took Messagé alone 234 hours to design the mounts for the Bahut Marine, at a cost to Linke of 1.287 francs. It is therefore likely that there simply wasn’t sufficient capacity in Linke’s workshop, let alone the financial resources, to produce the full complement of twenty-five pieces he had intended to exhibit in Paris.

Furthermore, despite their lasting impact in the world of furniture-making, there was little profit for Linke in his exhibition pieces, most of his income coming from the very high quality but simpler and therefore cheaper to reproduce models which were of broader appeal and affordability.

We can trace the history of the Bahut Marine from its inception. Tell me about that.
The Bahut was just one of the seminal pieces from Linke’s St. Louis World Fair stand bought by Captain Joseph De Lamar, a Dutchman who after an early career at sea had made a fortune in the Gold Rush before becoming one of the United States’ leading financiers. De Lamar also purchased the second version of Linke’s extraordinary Grande Bibliothèque, having almost certainly seen the first at the 1900 Exposition and a photograph of which hung directly above the Bahut Marine at St. Louis.

In 1919, almost a year after De Lamar’s death, the contents of his impressive Madison Avenue Beaux-Arts mansion were sold at auction and the Bahut Marine was bought by Peter W. Rouss, of the then famous New York Department store. It subsequently passed through the hands of two other prominent art collectors, the Pittsburgh steel magnate, Emil Winter and the enormously wealthy New Jersey philanthropist, Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge, before finally appearing in our rooms now. The full provenance is detailed in the cataloguing of this superb cabinet.

Why would a collector want to buy Linke today?
You simply won’t find any other furniture from Linke’s period that even comes close to the quality of his best production. Linke’s cabinet and gilt-bronze work is exceptional. He was an absolute perfectionist: one anecdote is that he tested his pieces by attempting to slide a cigarette paper between the cabinet and the affixed mounts. If it fit in the gap, he would send the piece back to be reworked.

Furthermore, whilst Linke’s work appears regularly on the auction market, reflecting his huge output and longevity, the availability of his top level exhibition ‘creations’ is extremely slim.  In large part due to their phenomenal production costs, most of these pieces were duplicated fewer times than there are fingers on one hand. However, the Bahut Marine was made but once, making this a rare opportunity for the collector to acquire not only a seminal work by Linke, but one that is unique in his oeuvre.    

What is the narrative behind the design of the cabinet?
The symbolism is undeniably nautical, a feature which no doubt attracted the attention of the Bahut’s former seafaring first owner. Starting at the top, water gushes from an upturned urn, which continues cascading down through a landscape, to the mask of a river god suspending an anchor flanked by paddle-bearing tritons and fishes. At the very base fine marquetry panels depict life on the seabed, and elsewhere exquisitely delicate gilt-bronze reeds, seaweed, shells and netting serve to complete the imagery.