Lot 28
  • 28

François Linke 1855 - 1946 A gilt-bronze mounted kingwood and satiné cubed parquetry game table 'en envelope', Paris, early 20th century

bidding is closed

Description

  • François Linke
  • gilt-bronze mounted kingwood and satiné
  • height 29½ in.; width 22¾ in.
  • 75 cm, 60.5 cm
fitted with one drawer, the top swivelling and opening to four hinged quarter-cut flaps to reveal a green baize lined top, signed Linke to proper left hand side chute

Catalogue Note

The table à jeu en envelope model, typical of the Edwardian period, ultimately derived from the card-console table that had been so popular during the second half of the eighteenth century in England. The card table design that we see in nineteenth century France developed soon after that of the card-console.  Nineteenth century designers invented the hinged swivelling top which opened to expose both the writing surface and the well where games were often stored. 

François Linke (1855-1945) was undoubtedly the most important Parisian ébéniste of his time. Having served an apprenticeship in his home town of Pankraz, Bohemia, Linke arrived in Paris in 1875 and set up independent workshops at 170, Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine in 1881 and later also at 26, Place Vendôme. By the time of the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle, Linke's worldwide reputation as a master of high individualism and inventiveness was already established and unmatched by his contemporaries.  His success at the 1900 exhibition afforded Linke a high degree of financial stability and allowed him to pursue new markets by exhibiting at subsequent international fairs. Like the inventories of contemporaries such as Beurdeley and Dasson, Linke's oeuvre included copies and adaptations of the distinct styles of 18th century important and royal French furniture. However his most extravagant exhibition pieces combined the Louis XV style with the new Art Nouveau style. Linke's frequent collaborator for his designs was the celebrated sculptor Léon Messagé.  In 1904, he was made Officier de L’Iinstruction Publique, and in 1905 he was called to be a member of the Jury of the Liège exhibition.  Following his stands in the St- Louis (U.S.A.) exhibition in 1904 and the Liège exhibition in 1905, Linke was decorated with the highest distinction of France, the Croix de la Légion d’Honneur, on October 11, 1906.