François Linke 1855 - 1946 A gilt-bronze mounted kingwood and end-cut foliate marquetry and satiné cube-parquetry table Paris, circa 1890, index number 168

fitted with a long frieze drawer, one of the acanthus crab-like mounts has been removed to reveal the stamp FL from the workshop master model.

Payne, Christopher, François Linke 1855-1946 The Belle Epoque of French Furniture, Antique Collector's Club Ltd., Woodbridge, 2003, p. 165

Overall in good condition and good presentation, no replacement to bronze. Original gilding and with the minor scratches and dents, bruises to carcass and veneers.
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Linke title: Bijouterie Fenwick Louis XV ceintures galbee marqueterie violette sur fond satine, 1m 10 x 0.68

This centre table was originally conceived by Francois Linke as a glass topped display table but due to it's practical and popular nature was immediately offered with the alternative of a parquetry top. The low number of 168 itself is an indication that it is a very early model from Linke's stable. The use in the title of the name Fenwick has not yet been fully explained. It most probably refers to Fenwick Frères et Cie of 21 rue Martel in Paris. Linke notes that he has supplied thirty-six items to this company between 1888 and 1891. These dates would coincide with the making of index number 168 and the name of Fenwick alongside suggests that the first model was supplied to the firm or was delivered to them for a client. A Scott by birth, Noël Fenwick, created in 1862 a transport firm specializing in delivery to the Great Britain. In 1885 the firm became Fenwick Frères & Co..

 

Christopher Payne Linke, p. 273, pl. 288 illustrates a similar model shown in a study at Ras al-Tin, the vast 17,000 square metre palace overlooking the Mediterranean Sea in Alexandria furnished by Linke in the 1920s for the King of Egypt, Fuad I. The Egypt version however has chutes 'à caryatides' rather than 'à fleurs' as in the present lot. The comparison of the variations of 'chutes' offered by the Linke workshops can be seen in a detail photograph also in C. Payne's Linke, p. 359, pl. 396. Linke notes in his hand written price list that the heads or flowers versions of the mounts were the same price to customers.

The display version has a glazed hinged lid with no drawers, the present lot has one long drawer and a further version was made, possibly only once as a bureau, with three frieze drawers.  In 1903 a carcass for another version with elaborate ruin landscape marquetry on the top was made, number 1166 and finished in 1905. (Illustrated in detail in C. payne's Linke pp. 408-409, plates 462-464).

Footnotes courtesy of Christopher Payne