BY FRANCOIS LINKE, PARIS, CIRCA 1900

Franois Linke was undoubtedly the most important Parisian ébéniste of his time. Having served an apprenticeship in his home town of Pankraz, Bohemia, the young Linke arrived in Paris in 1875 and set up independent workshops at 170, rue du Faubourg St Antoine in 1881 and later also at 26, place Vendôme. By the time of the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle, Linke's worldwide reputation as a master of high quality individualism and inventiveness was already established and unmatched by his contemporaries. Linke's success at the 1900 exhibition afforded him a high degree of financial stability and allowed him to pursue new markets by exhibiting at subsequent international fairs, such as the 1904 World's Fair in St Louis, in Liège in 1905 and at the Franco-British exhibition in London in 1908. Like the inventories of contemporaries, such as Beurdeley and Dasson, Linke's oeuvre included copies and adaptations of the distinct styles of 18th century important and royal French furniture.