Object Description
A Petit Bureau à Cylindre in the Transitional Manner
After the design by Jean-François Oeben
By François Linke
Index no. 1626
A rare small cylinder bureau, after the celebrated example today in the Musée Nissim de Camondo in Paris, constructed with marquetry-inlaid floral designs on a harewood ground to all sides, with tulipwood crossbanding and mahogany, supported on cabriole legs with ormolu sabots, an arrangement of five drawers housed within the frieze; above, the parquetry tambour mechanism opening to reveal a leather-lined writing surface and six harewood-faced drawers; surmounted by a three-quarter pierced gallery. Signed in the bronze Linke, with the lockplate stamped CT Linke / 1626.
French, circa 1900
This cylinder desk is a recreation of one designed by Jean-François Oeben, who became maître ebeniste in 1761. Linke based this bureau on the one currently shown at the Musée Nissim de Camondo (CAM 191). Oeben crafted several cylinder desks of this style, including the one at the Nissim de Camondo Museum and another commissioned for the Dauphine of France, later finding its way into the apartments of Marie-Antoinette (sold at Sotheby’s New York on October 22, 2005, lot 88).
These small desks, characteristic of the 18th century and created by one of the most talented cabinetmakers of his generation, naturally served as both a model and inspiration for 19th-century designers. Cabinetmakers like François Linke, as exemplified here, reinvented these iconic pieces from the previous century.