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Francois Linke Bureau A Cylindre, Index Number 77 Paris, Designed Circa 1880 acajou, oeil de vermeil cube-parquetry, ebene and buis stringings, the roll-top opening to five drawers and two compartments above a gilt-tooled green leather sliding writing surface, one frieze drawer, the lockplate has been removed to reveal the Ct. Linke stamp and the number 77. height 39 5/8 in.; width 34 1/4 in.; depth 21 1/4 in. Literature: D. Ledoux-Lebard, Le Mobilier Francais du XIX Siecle, pp. 435-444 C. Payne, 19th Century European Furniture, pp.39-40 D.Alcouffe et al., Furniture Collections in the Louvre, Vol. 1, p.283-285, for an illustration of a similar 18th century model by Riesener with slight variant. Linke title: Bureau cylindre Louis XVI bois d’acajou et bronzes dores This desk is a modified version of the popular desk by Jean-Henri Riesener that Linke made under index number 100. The present lot is index 77 and, as the numbers in Linke’s index are sequential, this is a very early model, originally dating to the 1880’s. However, it is clearly based on an even earlier model, number 19, listed as 87 centimeters wide. Both were originally made to have a superstructure but Linke simplified the design, as in the present lot, at an unspecified date. The first record traceable with certainty is in Daybook 5, p.93. Here the optional superstructure is drawn in, the panels in vernis Martin, the suggestion that it was made for the celebrated firm of Baques. Interestingly, on the next page Linke made a simple bureau plat using the same carcass and bronze mounts. There is no trace of this model in Linke’s second series of Daybook’s, the Blue Books, but it appears in 1911 in the green registres in mahogany, still with a superstructure and vernis Martin which coincides with the Price Lists. Howerver, one inconsistancy is that it also appears to be in walnut with a parquetry cylinder, made in 1911 for the Hale Kilburn Co.
Dimensions: height 39 5/8 in.; width 34 1/4 in.; depth 21 1/4 in.
Condition: Very Good