A Palatial and Rare Early 20th Century Belle Epoque Gilt Bronze, Kingwood, Bois Satiné and Fruitwood Marquetry Dressing Table By François Linke

$600,000

François Linke – The Mounts Designed by Leon Messagé

Surmounted by a central cartouche shaped mirror with arched cresting with elaborate sculptural group of two cherubs holding a water-spilling urn. Above flanking cherubic figures holding lamps. The gilt bronze frame of swept acanthus and hibiscus. There are two marquetry panels below the mirror which are finely inlaid with flower filled trellis decoration. The hinged flanking mirrors surmounted by dolphins mounts. The marble slab top of the dressing table carved from the finest fleur de pêcher pink marble. The frieze fronted by a central drawer with sea-nymph mask between floral garlands. The flanking drawers with acanthus frames and rocaille handles. The angles headed by semi-draped female busts on cabriole legs joined by an ‘X’-shaped stretcher centered by a cloud born figure of cupid.

Signed F. Linke to the mirror.

Provenance:
Captain Joseph R. De Lamar, New York; sold American Art Association New York, 20-22 November 1919, lot 380.

Mr & Mrs. Peter W. Rouss, subsequently sold American Art Association, Anderson Galleries
Inc., New York, 22-24 October 1936, lot 293.

An Important Private Collection, USA.

Joseph Raphael De Lamar (1843 – 1918) was a prominent mine owner and operator in the western United States and Canada. The legendary collection of Captain Joseph Raphael De Lamar included many important pieces of furniture by François Linke. The contents of his mansion on Madison Avenue were sold at auction in 1919.

Linke was born in Pankraz in Bohemia and was celebrated by the French as one of the greatest ébénistes of meubles de style at the turn of the century. He began his apprenticeship with a Bohemian master at the age of thirteen. Four years later, he toured Austria, settling and working in Vienna for two years. Linke arrived in Paris in 1875, and by 1881 he had established his own small workshop at 170 rue du Faubourg St. Antoine. Taking 18th century styles as his starting point and adapting earlier styles to contemporary taste, Linke produced fine quality furniture, steadily expanding his business during the next 20 years. He firmly established his reputation after receiving a Gold Medal at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1900 for his extraordinary Grand Bureau. He continued to use international fairs as a means of exploring new markets, exhibiting at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, the Liege in Belgium and the 1908 Franco-British exhibition in London. Linke’s highly original designs sprang from the Régence and Rococo styles but were imbued with something quite new – Rococo curves were laden with gilt bronze sculptural mounts in the tradition of A.-C. Boulle (1642-1732) or Charles Cressent (1685-1758). Stylistically, the new designs still adhered to the Rococo, the novelty, however, was Linke’s fusion of the Rococo with the liveliness and the fluidity of the ‘Art Nouveau’. The Revue called Linke’s creations entierement nouveau, and continued to say that ‘Linke’s stand is the biggest show in the history of art furniture in the year 1900…’ The mounts, or rather sculpture, were characteristic of the finest pieces from the Linke workshops. The most original designs were almost certainly created in collaboration with the enigmatic sculptor Léon Messagé, who excelled in creating lively, high relief, allegorical figures recalling the styles of Boucher and Falconet.

Today, as in the past, Linke is best known for the exceptionally high quality of his work, as well as his individualism and inventiveness. All of his work has the finest, most lavish mounts. The technical brilliance of his work and the artistic change that it represented has never been repeated.

Approx. Dimensions:
Height – 84 inches / 213cm
Width – 59.5 inches / 151cm
Depth – 25 inches / 64cm