By François Linke
Located in Long Island City, NY
A palatial and superb early 20th century gilt bronze Mounted Louis XVI style Mahogany Vitrine by François Linke
François Linke
The arched top with scrolled corners and centered by a laurel wreath and crossed acanthus branches, above a central large door at top by a lyre on drapery-covered plinth, flanked by scrolling acanthus, with a smaller door to each side hung with floral swags and with central oval plate, the divides cast with a slender flower-filled vase, the interior with adjustable shelves and drawers to the bottom, on shaped foliate-cast plinth and acanthus-capped tapering feet.
Inscribed F. Linke to the top right bronze mount and stamped “C LINKE” on the back of the locks.
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...
Category
Early 20th Century French Belle Époque Bronze Vitrines
