.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The present commode is based on Jean-Henri Riesener's celebrated commode supplied in 1776 to Louis XVI for his cabinet interieur at Fontainebleau.
At a cost of 209 francs, François Linke purchased a set of patterns for the commode at the sale of the restorer and furniture-maker, Cueunières in November 1902. The design would prove a commercial success for Linke and the ébéniste would late reinterpret Riesener's design in a number of variously sized cabinets, classified under various index numbers in the Linke Archive. Judging from the veining in marble top of the present lot, the cabinet is certainly the same as the one in Linke's glass cliché (see inset illustration). A watercolor for a related Riesener-inspired commode, index number 1036, is illustrated in C. Payne, François Linke: The Belle Epoque of French Furniture, Woodbridge, 2003, p. 206.
At a cost of 209 francs, François Linke purchased a set of patterns for the commode at the sale of the restorer and furniture-maker, Cueunières in November 1902. The design would prove a commercial success for Linke and the ébéniste would late reinterpret Riesener's design in a number of variously sized cabinets, classified under various index numbers in the Linke Archive. Judging from the veining in marble top of the present lot, the cabinet is certainly the same as the one in Linke's glass cliché (see inset illustration). A watercolor for a related Riesener-inspired commode, index number 1036, is illustrated in C. Payne, François Linke: The Belle Epoque of French Furniture, Woodbridge, 2003, p. 206.