BY FRANÇOIS LINKE, INDEX NUMBER 14, PARIS, LATE 19TH/EARLY 20TH CENTURY

Payne notes that Linke appears to have made only two examples of this unusual corner étagère, index number 14, probably in 1891. A pair sold A Private Collection, Volume I, Sotheby's, New York, 26 October 2006, lot 173 ($60,000). Therefore the present lot, having remained in the same family since it was bought circa 1900, is perhaps a newly disovered example (C. Payne, Franois Linke: The Belle Epoque of French Furniture, Woodbridge, 2003 pl. 59, and a watercolour, pl. 60, p.67). The distinctive 'crab-like acanthus' mount and scrolling gallery show Léon Messagé's influence.