A REGENCE STYLE ORMOLU-MOUNTED TULIPWOOD AND PARQUETRY BUREAU PLAT
PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF MR. & MRS. RICHARD SCHILLING, ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS (LOTS 441-462)
A REGENCE STYLE ORMOLU-MOUNTED TULIPWOOD AND PARQUETRY BUREAU PLAT

BY FRANÇOIS LINKE, INDEX NUMBER 133, PARIS, EARLY 20TH CENTURY

Details
A REGENCE STYLE ORMOLU-MOUNTED TULIPWOOD AND PARQUETRY BUREAU PLAT
BY FRANÇOIS LINKE, INDEX NUMBER 133, PARIS, EARLY 20TH CENTURY
The rectangular ormolu-moulded top with a gilt-tooled brown leather writing surface and grotesque mask clasps, above a shaped frieze set with a central recessed drawer and flanking short drawers, the reverse with similar false drawers, each side centred with a Bacchic mask, on satyr mask-headed cabriole legs tapering to hoof-cast sabots, the moulding inscribed Linke, the locks stamped CT LINKE/SERRURERIE/PARIS and 133
29¾ in. (75.5 cm.) high; 55 1/8 in. (140 cm.) wide; 32¼ in. (82 cm.) deep
Literature
C. Payne, François Linke 1855-1946: The Belle Epoque of French Furniture, Woodbridge, 2003.

Lot Essay

Index number 133 was perhaps among Linke's favoured models, which he produced in an array of sizes and kept the largest-avaliable version in his personal study. Payne cites that 133 came under some fire circa 1911 and remains one of the Linke's only known disputes regarding authorship to this day. According to Linke's registres, the firm had supplied twenty-six models to Schmidt & Piollet soon after the design's inception in 1892. However, Linke increased the production costs of the popular model and as a result Schmidt, a long-standing client of Linke's, had copied the model without the appropriate permissions. Though the outcome of the dispute can only be speculated, letters written by Linke in response to Schmidt's reproductions confirmed that the designs were of his own hand with the chutes designed by Léon Messagé.

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