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Lot Essay
The commode, elegantly serpentined in the Louis XV manner and laurel-festooned in celebration of 'abundance through labour', is hung with lion-pelts, recalling Hercules' labours. A festive marquetry garland is suspended in a laurel-wreathed medallion; while more flowers, inlaid in flanking tablets, issue from ceres' 'horns of abundance' and are supported by beribboned palms emerging from the voluted feet.
The inspiration for the mounts, derived from models that had been executed by the bronze founder Jean-Claude Duplessis (d. 1774) for the celebrated bureau commissioned by Louis XV from Jean-Franois Oeben (matre 1759) and completed by Jean-Henri Riesener (d. 1806). In the later 19th century, after the marquetried bureau had been moved to the Palais de Saint-Cloud, copies were manufactured by leading Parisian bniste's including Henry Dasson (d. 1896), whose models appear to have been acquired by F. Linke.
A commode of this model signed by Linke, was sold in these rooms 14 May 1998, lot 262. Another by Linke, was sold at Sotheby's, New York, 15 December 1984, lot 33. A bureau plat, derived from the secrtaire cylindre by Oeben and Riesener, was sold in these rooms, 26 February 1998, lot 202.
Franois Linke (d. 1946), awarded the gold medal for his Grand Bureau at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle, was the most celebrated bniste of his time. Born in Bohemia in 1855, he moved to Paris in 1881. He produced furniture of the highest quality at his workshops at 170, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Antoine, and established showrooms at 26, Place Vendme.
The inspiration for the mounts, derived from models that had been executed by the bronze founder Jean-Claude Duplessis (d. 1774) for the celebrated bureau commissioned by Louis XV from Jean-Franois Oeben (matre 1759) and completed by Jean-Henri Riesener (d. 1806). In the later 19th century, after the marquetried bureau had been moved to the Palais de Saint-Cloud, copies were manufactured by leading Parisian bniste's including Henry Dasson (d. 1896), whose models appear to have been acquired by F. Linke.
A commode of this model signed by Linke, was sold in these rooms 14 May 1998, lot 262. Another by Linke, was sold at Sotheby's, New York, 15 December 1984, lot 33. A bureau plat, derived from the secrtaire cylindre by Oeben and Riesener, was sold in these rooms, 26 February 1998, lot 202.
Franois Linke (d. 1946), awarded the gold medal for his Grand Bureau at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle, was the most celebrated bniste of his time. Born in Bohemia in 1855, he moved to Paris in 1881. He produced furniture of the highest quality at his workshops at 170, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Antoine, and established showrooms at 26, Place Vendme.