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

Details

A Louis XV style ormolu-mounted kingwood and mahogany bombe pedestal-cabinet
By François Linke, Paris, Late 19th/Early 20th century
The serpentine stepped fleur de pêcher marble top above tapering sides, the front with cupboard door, the top inset with a plaque inscribed F. Linke/Paris, the lockplate stamped to the reverse CT LINKE/SERRURERIE/PARIS, the interior fitted with two shelves, the angles mounted with espagnolettes, on tapering legs terminating in scrolled acanthus sabots
54¾ in. (139 cm.) high; 17¾ in. (45 cm.) wide; 15 in. (38 cm.) deep

Literature

C. Payne François Linke, 1855-1946 - The Belle Epoque of French Furniture, Antique Collectors' Club, Woodbridge, 2003, p. 40, plate 32 (illustration of marquetry and parquetry-inlaid variants).

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

This pedestal is listed by Linke as register number 184 Grande gaine LXV à 4 faces bois de violette, priced at 1,650 French francs. Thus the model was an early one and it is rare to see the script inset signature plaque of the door which has always been assumed to date from the 1910 period or later. The first readable date accompanying the pencil sketch in Linke's pocket book is for April 1895 but the register number alone suggests that it was first conceived in the 1880s. Later versions appeared to have been made without a door. The model appears to have been superseded by another 2 cm. higher, produced as register number 1422, listed in the price list of circa 1901 as a gaine vitrine Louis XV, with a glazed door and sides. Made between 1907 and 1922, the retail price of the vitrine version was 2,000 French francs in 1901 but had risen sharply to 16,400 by the 1926 revision. A Mr. Le Brun ordered one version in 1908.

Footnote researched and compiled by Christopher Payne.

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