A Very Fine Louis XV Style Table à Thé by François Linke

A Very Fine Louis XV Style Two-Tier Table à Thé.

By François Linke. Index no. 610

The serpentine dual-handled upper-tier with removable glazed tray supported by four gilt bronze putti tritons, the kingwood lower-tier inlaid with cube satiné parquetry, above a shaped frieze centred to the front and reverse with a characteristic crab-like acanthus scallop shell mount, flanked with foliate and shell cast encadrement on cabriole legs tapering to scrolled sabots. The back of the shell mount incised with makers initials "F.L."

French, circa 1900

Index No. 610

One of François Linke's signature pieces, this model of étagère table can be found in Linke's archives as index No. 610. He exhibited the prototype of this model at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle, which employs identical supporting mounts as well as the signature crab-like acanthus mount designed by Leon Messagé. Eleven of these tables à thé are recorded within Linke's archives. He exhibited subtle variants at the Salon des Industries du Mobilier in Paris in 1902 & 1905, as well as a model with slightly different mounts to the legs at St Louis in 1904 and in Liège in 1905. An acclaimed model, the table à thé often displays the same twin-handled ormolu and glazed tray top, and mounts designed by Léon Messagé.

François Linke

Linke 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 18th 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'Instruction 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.

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