BY FRANÇOIS LINKE, INDEX NUMBER 393, PARIS, LATE 19TH/EARLY 20TH CENTURY

The precursor of this model, a simplified cylinder bureau in plain acajou moucheté and with less ornate mounts, sold A Private Collection Volume II, Sotheby's, New York, 19 April 2007, lot 139 ($66,000). A later more complex model with the same mounts and cube-parquetry, but lacking the 'putti' candelabra, is recorded as index number 393. Payne notes that two of the simplified version were made, three of this model but lacking candlearms and, between 1901-11, three with candlearms like the present lot. One direct comparable belonged to the famous Linke collector Captain Joseph R. De Lamar and is illustrated in the catalogue of the on-the-premises contents sale of his New York mansion in 1919 (American Art Association, New York, 20-22 November 1919, lot 351). Please see lot 32 for a further note on François Linke.