François Linke 1855 - 1946 A Louis XV style gilt bronze mounted kingwood, satiné cube parquetry and bois de bout foliate marquetry meuble à hauteur d'appui, Paris, early 20th century, variante to index number 204B

surmounted by a Sarrancolin marble top, the doors opening to one shelf, one mount has been removed to reveal the mark FL from the bronze master model, the lock stamped CT. LINKE/ PARIS

This side cabinet has the iconic Linke 'crab-like acanthus' gilt-bronze mounts identified by Christopher Payne in Nineteenth Century European Furniture, published in 1981. At the time, it was shown to be a sure sign that a piece was made by the Linke firm, even if it was unsigned. Twenty five years later, we now know that most such mounts are stamped FL on the reverse of the original master model and a faint trace of these initials will show on the mounts, together with the model number of the mount. It was only in researching for François Linke 1855-1956, The Belle Epoque of French Furniture that Payne discovered that in fact Linke's sculptor, Léon Messagé, had designed this mount in the early 1880s for the leading Paris firm of Roux et Brunet. 

François Linke (1855-1946) 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 eighteenth 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.