Lot Essay
The present bureau plat derives from the large secrétaire à cylindre begun in 1760 by Jean-Franois Oeben (maître 1761) and completed after his death by his apprentice and employee Jean-Henri Riesener (maître 1768). The finished piece, inscribed in the marquetry by Riesener, was supplied in 1769 for the Cabinet of Louis XV at Versailles for the considerable sum of 62,000L. Apart from the absence of the top cylinder section and the replacement of the jasper ware medaillons of the original with foliate marquetry panels, this is, to all intents and purposes, a very faithful copy.
Linke is known to have made several versions of a bureau plat very similar in execution to the companion piece for the bureau du Roi, supplied to Versailles in 1786. The companion piece itself appears to have differed only very slightly from the lower section of the bureau du Roi and Linke's interpretations, using the same jasper ware plaques as the latter, appear to fall between the two models.
An identical bureau plat is illustrated in C. Payne, 19th Century European Furniture, Woodbridge, 1989, p. 108.
Linke is known to have made several versions of a bureau plat very similar in execution to the companion piece for the bureau du Roi, supplied to Versailles in 1786. The companion piece itself appears to have differed only very slightly from the lower section of the bureau du Roi and Linke's interpretations, using the same jasper ware plaques as the latter, appear to fall between the two models.
An identical bureau plat is illustrated in C. Payne, 19th Century European Furniture, Woodbridge, 1989, p. 108.