A French ormolu-mounted kingwood, mahogany and end-cut marquetry serpentine-shaped bombe commode
A French ormolu-mounted kingwood, mahogany and end-cut marquetry serpentine-shaped bombe commode

BY FRANCOIS LINKE, CIRCA 1910

Details
A French ormolu-mounted kingwood, mahogany and end-cut marquetry serpentine-shaped bombe commode
By Francois Linke, Circa 1910
The portasanta marble top with stepped edge, above ribbon-tied laurel festoons, with a pair of drawers inlaid sans traverse with fruit and flowers, centred by an oval medallion with a ribbon-tied laurel-cast wreath framing falling vines, above a pair of intertwined cornucopiae, flanked to each side by a Herculean lion-pelt, the sides similarly-inlaid and with a laurel-cast festoon above and palm fronds below, on square tapering legs, each with reeded tapering mount and scrolled acanthus foot, the back left-hand leg signed on the ormolu F. Linke
68 in. (172.8 cm.) wide; 37 in. (94.6 cm.) high; 27 in. (69.2 cm.) deep

Lot Essay

This commode, elegantly serpentined in the Louis XV manner and laurel-festooned in celebration of 'abundance through labour', is hung with lion-pelts, recalling the labours of Hercules. A festive marquetry garland is suspended in a laurel-wreathed medallion; while more flowers, inlaid in flanking tablets, issue from Ceres' 'horns of abundance' and are supported by beribboned palms emerging from the voluted feet.

The inspiration for the mounts, derived from models that had been executed by the bronze founder Jean-Claude Duplessis (d. 1774) for the celebrated bureau commissioned by Louis XV from Jean-Franois Oeben (matre 1759) and completed by Jean-Henri Riesener (d. 1806). In the later 19th century, after the marquetried bureau had been moved to the Palais de Saint-Cloud, copies were manufactured by leading Parisian bnistes including Henry Dasson (d. 1896), whose models appear to have been acquired by Linke.

Franois Linke (d.1946), awarded the gold medal for his Grand Bureau at the 1900 Exposition Universelle, was the most celebrated bniste of his time. Born in Bohemia in 1855, he moved to Paris in 1881. He produced furniture of the highest quality at his workshops at 170, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Antoine, and established showrooms at 26, Place Vendme.

Commodes of this model signed by Linke were sold in these rooms, 14 May 1998, lot 262 and 25 February 1999, lot 197. A bureau plat derived from the secrtaire cylindre by Oeben and Riesener was sold in these rooms, 26 February 1998, lot 202.

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