François Linke French, 1855 - 1946 An impressive and rare gilt bronze-mounted kingwood, satiné and fruitwood floral marquetry grande commode à vantaux Paris, circa 1885

surmounted by its original fleur de pêcher marble top, the vantaux opening to one shelf, the lock has been removed to reveal the Clément Linke stamp, the proper left hand chute signed F. Linke. Original key

Christopher Payne, François Linke 1855 – 1946 The Belle Époque of French Furniture, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2003.

Marble with two restored breaks. Small chips to edges. Gilt bronze with some tarnishing, oxidation, and rubbing. Some minor losses to marquetry, largest being a 3" inch loss to right side. Veneers with a somewhat dry finish. Two age cracks to the apron on either side of the central mount. Usual scratches, chips, and abrasions consistent with use and age.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This cabinet, which probably would be called a bahut by Linke, does not appear in his extensive archives, records that are almost certainly the most complete for any world class cabinet maker of any period or country. Knowing so much about his work makes such a mystery piece both frustrating and at the same time exciting. On some of his major pieces we know exactly who worked on it, in what discipline, what they were paid and who supplied, for example, the locks or marble slab. Initial inspection suggests that the present lot is an unrecorded variation of Linke’s 1900 exhibition piece the Bahut Louis XV Mars & Venus, index number 701, of which three were made but all seemingly the same. An example of this extraordinary cabinet was sold in these rooms April 29, 1998, lot 198 (see comparable drawing p.91 for the Bahut Louis XV Mars et Venus). Another is in the Casa-Museu Medeiros e Almeida in Lisbon. The third example is illustrated in Payne, Linke, p. 148, pl. 154. However, index number 701 is taller by approximately 20 centimetres so it is unlikely that the cabinetmaker who cut or debité the oak carcass was working from the same plan. There are similarities with the two 1900 exhibition commodes, Commode Louis XV Figaro (Scene du Barbier de Séville) and Commode coquille: Coquetterie et Modestie, indesx numbers 553 and 559 respectively but clearly they are not using the same cabinetmakers’ plan as the present lot. The handwritten mark ‘147’ in pencil is not an index number, or at least does not correspond with the Linke price list of 1900 which lists 147 as an encoignure. The use of hand written blue crayon and pencil names and numbers is not of course unique to Linke’s workshop but many of his pieces have been noted with a name and or number, usually  written under the marble in this manner. It is most probably an order number and if so, is a confirmation that the present lot is a very early piece by Linke. Although the accompanying red pen and ink drawing by Messagé is not numbered, the sequence of drawings does encompass page number 147 which however is a sketch for a clock case.

This rare and probably unique commode in Linke’s oeuvre shows his ingenuity in using the expensive models for gilt-bronze mounts in different guises. Linke’s elaborate mounts were an essential part of his repertoire and brought him to the forefront of the Paris makers of meubles de haut luxe encapsulated in his spectacular Gold Medal winning exhibition at the Paris  Exposition Universelle. A highly trained cabinetmaker and a self-motivated entrepreneur, Linke realised that he needed an edge on his contemporaries to make a mark on the international market. This edge is now well documented in a chapter on his sculptor ‘Léon Messagé and the evolution of the Linke Style’, (see Payne, Linke, op.cit pp. 71-95), where Linke is thought to have worked as a young man in Paris with Joseph-Emmanuel Zwiener who had discovered the sculptural talents of Messagé. Messagé died relatively young age of 58 in 1901 at the height of Linke’s career having worked on all of the major items on the Linke 1900 exhibition stand. Thus most of the major gilt-bronze mounts  on Like furniture were designed and possibly executed no later than 1900 posing  a potential problem for Linke for the rest of his long career. Linke’s ingenuity and inventiveness overcame the loss of Messagé; he was able to purchase a quantity of Messagé’s drawings which had been either handed over to Linke in 1901 after Messagé’s death, or given to Goujon, the contre-maître of the ciseleurs in Linke’s workshop, a friend of Messagé. Messagé’s widow subsequently sold the rights to her late husband’s designs to Linke, thus securing the right for Linke & Cie to continue using his bronze patterns on their furniture. A number of Cessions de Propriété in the Linke Archives,  collated in 1903, are attached to photographs of his furniture, annotated by the individual craftsmen working for Linke under Messagé’s guidance, each man signing away his rights to the design, thus giving control to Linke.

Many of the mounts used on the present lot were used by Linke in various guises well into the 20^th century but the evidence of the accompanying pen and ink drawing suggests without doubt that the present cabinet was designed before the 1900 exhibition.  The drawing comes from a precious collection of Messagé’s sketches for furniture and other artefacts, some of which are dated as early as 1871, even before the sculptor was working for Zwiener. Recorded in 1842 as a sculptor in stone, Messagé was designing sculptural furniture mounts in Paris for the celebrated firm of A. Krieger et Cie. in circa 1867. There is no doubt that the red ink sketch is an outline for the present lot or possibly a combination of the exhibition bahut 701 and the present lot. Assuming that this folder of Messagé sketches all date from the 1870s as does the one of Boulle style furniture mounts (see Payne, Linke, p. 79, pl. 80) then the present lot is clearly a highly innovative design by the sculptor which was not able to be brought to fruition until his working association with Linke, one of the few cabinetmakers who was capable of putting such an audacious item if furniture together. Continued research into Linke oeuvre will quite possibly make more information available.

The present lot is signed F. Linke in his habitual manner, in script to the proper left, engraving that is invariably in the same hand, normally by a craftsman called Hatard. The lock is stamped by Linke’s brother, Clemént, who worked supplying locks, keys and hinges for François in the 1890s. Normally the Linke locks by Clément are stamped with the Linke index number but not on the present lot. This would indicate that it was most probably a commission as it is often an indication that it is an early piece from possibly the late 1880s or 1890 as Linke often was making furniture for other makers until he became firmly established in his own right at the end of the 1890s, cemented by his Gold Medal at the 1900 exhibition. Another indication that it is an early piece is that there is no Linke mark or number on the reverse of the mounts, a practice adopted by Linke in later years so that they could be identified at the foundry. As well as the style of the bronze mounts, their placing is typical of the Messagé/Linke combination. The cabinet has all the other hallmarks of Linke’s workshops, the breche violette marble slab, polished at the back and the use of the satiné veneer and above all. The marquetry, probably cut by the faithful and long serving marqueteur, Labbé. At present the pencil  number 147, written clearly in a continental hand on the oak carcass, is difficult to reconcile. A folder of Messagé drawings in the archive are nearly all numbered, with the exception of the sketch for the present lot (see illustration right page), the numbers running to over two hundred. Number 147 in the folder (folder number 24) is for a Regence style clock case. As the early Linke daybooks are somewhat irregular and as Linke had clearly not evolved his sequential numbering system to the refined degree of the 1884 Daybook 2, the writer of this note suspects that the 147 refers to a very early Linke index or registre number that has subsequently been discontinued and substituted for the present item in the register, a corner cupboard. This would coincide, for example with a commode sketched by Messagé and made by Linke in December 1885 (see Payne, Linke, p. 83, pl. 85) and it is quite possible that the present lot was made at this early date.

Footnote courtesy of Christopher Payne.