François Linke 1855 - 1946 A Louis XVI style gilt bronze mounted mahogany, sycamore and fruitwood marquetry center table, Paris, late 19th/early 20th century, index number 251, after the celebrated model by Jean Henry Riesener

the top finely decorated with an elaborate marquetry representing mythological figures of Urania and Calliope, with respective attributes of astronomy and poetry, one bronze mount has been removed to reveal the FL mark from the bronze master model

C. Payne, François Linke 1855-1946, The Belle Epoque of French Furniture, Antique Collector's club, Woodbridge, 2003, p. 337, p. 49, for the illustration of the present model in a black and white cliché in the Linke Archive

P. Arrizoli-Clémentel, Versailles Furnitures of the Royal Palace, 17th and 18th Centuries, ed. Faton, Dijon, 2002, Vol II, pp. 91-96 for the original by Riesener

Although made by several of the more important Parisian cabinet makers of the period circa 1870-1900, the present lot by François Linke is listed under the index number 251. The first example by Linke is in Blue Daybook ranging from index number 1 to 390 dates to circa 1894. The table was available in its most complex form as a direct copy of the original royal example, or with a marble top.

This celebrated model with an elaborate marquetry top representing mythological figures of Urania and Calliope with respective implements of astronomy and poetry is a copy of the table supplied in 1771 for Louis XVI's Garde-Meuble by Jean-Henri Riesener, received master in 1768. The original is now in the permanent collection of the Musée de Versailles, on display at the Petit Trianon.