Book table - Attributed to F.LINKE - XIXth century

Elegant rosewood veneer work table.
Rectangular in shape, its top is encircled by a bronze gadroon and reveals a very beautiful marquetry with cubes. 
Inside, there is a locker and a mirror encircled by a gadroon bronze.

The cube marquetry belt is also endowed with a ravishing and sober ornamentation of gilt bronze with gadrooned rushes.
It rests on four arched legs, each foot magnified by beautiful falls and gilded bronze sabots.
 
This magnificent work of the Faubourg Saint Antoine is attributable to François Linke with its ornamentation of gilded and finely chiselled bronzes, characteristic of the most important cabinetmaker of his time.

Period: End of the 19th century
Style : Louis XV
Dimensions : Height : 73cm x Width : 56,4cm depth : 40,7cm

François Linke (1855 -1946) was born in Pankraz in Bohemia and arrived in Paris in 1875. In 1881, he established his own small workshop at 170 rue du Faubourg St Antoine, later creating a branch at 26 place Vendôme. 

Linke's international reputation was already well established by the time the 1900 Exposition Universelle was held in Paris, his talent and creativity unrivalled: the Exposition crowned his success and strengthened the financial stability of his business, enabling him to conquer new markets abroad.
He exhibited in St. Louis, Liege in Belgium and London. 

Linke's highly original designs are inspired by the Regency and Rococo styles but are imbued with something entirely new, the Rococo curves are loaded with sculptural gilt bronze mounts in the tradition of A.-C. Boulle (1642-1732) or Charles Cressent (1685-1758).

The most original creations were certainly made in collaboration with the enigmatic sculptor Léon Messagé, who excelled in the creation of lively allegorical figures in high relief, reminiscent of the styles of Boucher and Falconet.

Today, as in the past, Linke is best known for the exceptional quality of his work, as well as for his individualism and inventiveness. All of his works are equipped with the finest and most sumptuous frames. The technical brilliance of his work and the artistic change he represented have never been duplicated.