The circular top with radiating specimen marbles, including levanto rouge, violet brocatelle, viollette de Villette, vert d'Irlande, vert antique, inset within a bleu belge ground encircled by an ormolu surround signed 'F. Linke', above a frieze set with relief-cast scene of putti emblemaic of the arts, the tapering legs headed by swagged acanthus running to leaf-cast and pomegranate-form feet
29³⁄₄ in. (75.5 cm.) high; 41¹⁄₂ in. (105.5 cm.) diameter

C. Payne, François Linke: The Belle Epoque of French Furniture, Woodbridge, 2003, p. 495, pl. 616 (a table of this model illustrated).

This lot has been imported from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.
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Lot Essay

The Linke archive records that François Linke titled this table ‘Grand guéridon Louis XVI, pietment de la table Muse, dessus marbre assemblés, bronzes dorés mats’. As the title indicates this table is a creation based on the celebrated rectangular marquetry table des Muses, supplied in 1771 for Louis XVI's Garde-Meuble by Jean-Henri Riesener and now on display at the Petit Trianon, Versailles. One other example of this table, index number 616, sold Sotheby’s, New York, 14-15 April 2008, lot 224 ($169,000).

François Linke (d. 1946) was one of the most celebrated ébénistes of his time. Born in Pankraz, Bohemia, Linke moved to Paris in 1875 and six years later established independent ateliers at 170, rue de Faubourg St. Antoine. As was the practice among contemporaries and noteworthy predecessors, such as Alfred Beurdeley and Henry Dasson, Linke initially produced furniture derived from styles popular during the 18th century ancien régime. By 1900, his worldwide reputation as an individualistic master of high quality furniture was already established. However, with a huge display, placing his extravagant pieces in room settings and winning the Médaille d'Or for his Grand Bureau, Linke's participation in the Paris 1900 exhibition was to be the pinnacle of his career, and prompted critics, such as Charles Dambreuse, to comment: 'L'Exposition de la maison Linke est le gros événement de l'histoire du meuble d'art en l'an de grâce 1900' (see C. Dambreuse, L'Art Industriel à l'Exposition de Meuble de Style - M. F. Linke, in Revue Artistique & Industrielle, Paris, July-August, 1900). Linke's international acclaim following the 1900 exhibition afforded him a high degree of financial stability, not only allowing him to establish a large showroom on the fashionable place Vendôme, but also to pursue new and further distant markets by exhibiting at other international shows. These included the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904, where he was again awarded a gold medal, Liège in 1905 and the Franco-British exhibition in London in 1908.