A Louis XVI Style Vernis Martin Side Cabinet

Object Description

A Louis XVI Style Gilt-Bronze, Vernis Martin And Satinwood Parquetry Side Cabinet, Attributed to François Linke.

Of trapezoid outshape with an inset brocatelle d’Espagne marble top. The cupboard door richly ornamented with a central gilt-bronze ribbon-tied trophy of a hat and bagpipes emblematic of pastoral idyll. The Vernis Martin panel is after the painting ‘Blind-Man’s Buff’ by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806). The interior fitted with a shelf. The curved sides with Vernis Martin panels of Arcadian vistas. On lightly shaped cabriole legs terminating in paw feet.

France, Circa 1890.

Object History

Although apparently unsigned the model and superb construction of this elegant cabinet attribute it as an early work by François Linke dating to the 1880s or early 90s. The attribution is strengthened by comparison of the gilt-bronze mounts. The gilt-bronze ribbon-tied trophy of a hat and bagpipes to the centre of the frieze is a sculptural mount that Linke used elsewhere, including to a vitrine, also with Vernis Martin decoration, see: https://www.adrianalan.com/product/a-louis-xvi-style-vernis-martin-vitrine-cabinet/

Christopher Payne records that this this type of small cabinet was made by Linke under his Index Number 1036, calling it the smallest reinterpretation of Reisener’s Fontainebleau model of commode. He illustrates a preparatory drawing of the model and related example in C. Payne, Paris Furniture – the luxury market of the 19th century, Éditions Monelle Hayot (Paris), 2018; p. 438.

Object Literature

C. Payne, Paris Furniture – the luxury market of the 19th century, Éditions Monelle Hayot (Paris), 2018; p. 438.

Object Details