François Linke 1855 - 1946 A gilt and patinated bronze mounted burr amboyna veneered centre table, Paris, early 20th century, index number 1390, after the celebrated model attributed to Adam Weisweiler

the stretcher centered by a Sèvres style cobalt blue ground porcelain vase, the top with ebony banding and ambonya veneered in sun rays, signed F. Linke to bronze molded edge, some bronze mounts have been removed to reveal the stamp FL as well as the stamp LINKE and its corresponding bronze serial numbers for the bronze master model

C. Payne, François Linke 1855-1946 The Belle Epoque of French Furniture, Woodbridge, 2003, p. 208, pl. 228 for the watercolor

J.P. Samoyault, Meubles entrés sous le Premier Empire, Paris, 2004, p. 248, fig. 176.

François Linke acquired a model of the present table at the sale of Maison Millet's stock in 1905. Two years later he produced his first version, listed as no. 1390, complete with a porcelain vase imitating porphyry. Christopher Payne, in his book "François Linke, 1855-1946, The Belle Epoque of French Furniture," records Linke as making eight further examples of this table, each with a blue porcelain vase supplied by Samson et Cie. The superbly modelled bronze caryatids to the tops of the scrolled decoration can be attributed to Léon Messagé. 

The present table is based on a model of a circular table attributed to Adam Weisweiler and Thomire, which was delivered by Rocheaux to Fontainebleau Palace in 1810. A table of this form appears in the well-known portrait titled Madame X by John Singer Sargent, now in the permanent collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

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.