Table à thé à deux niveaux avec attributs de style Louis XVI, modelée par François Linke France, fin du XIXe siècle

Francois Linke Francois Linke 1855-1946, is an outstanding French cabinetmaker of the last quarter of the 19th century. A legendary master of the first half of the 20th century. Comes from Silesian Germans. He studied the craft in a German environment and in Vienna. In 1875 he finally settled in Paris. He opened a workshop in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, where he worked mainly for other manufacturers. The year of the master’s triumph was 1900 and the World Exhibition in Paris. Having risked everything by putting together a grandiose exhibition without insurance contracts, Linke gained worldwide fame and renown, with clients all over the world. His original sound of the styles of Louis XV and XVI, multiplied by the willfulness of Art Nouveau, gave an unusually bright chord of forms and decorations. In an era of crisis of traditional furniture, it remained the flagship of the industry. They wrote: “The work of M. Linke... was an example of what can be done by seeking inspiration among the classical examples of Louis XV and XVI without in any sense copying these great works. M. Linke′s work was original in the full sense of the word and as such appealed to the intelligent seekers of truly artistic things in the exhibition. Remarkable talent was used to create magnificent works. exhibited furniture." His salon on Place Vendôme attracted special clients. One of them was the sheikh of Egypt, for whom Linke furnished a palace that surpassed Versailles in beauty and wealth. Linke retained the palm of cabinet-making until the second world wave. He retired in the late 1930s and died in 1946.