A Pair of Gilt-Bronze Mounted Mahogany Salon Chairs by François Linke

Object Description

A Pair of Gilt-Bronze Mounted Mahogany Salon Chairs by François Linke, The Design for the Mounts Attributed to Léon Messagé.

Signed ‘FL’ to back of the bronzes. The underside seat tacking stencilled ’10 22 / 10637 T2’.

Linke index no. 973.

This elegant and sophisticated pair of chairs each have a shaped open cartouche back, the cresting rail is embellished with a gilt-bronze fronded acanthus mount. The shaped stuffed over seat with foliate needlework embroidered cover. The curved apron centred by a foliate cast spray and raised on cabriole legs headed by gilt-bronze clasps and terminating in scrolled sabots.

France, Circa 1900.

Object History

These most elegant chairs are recorded in the Linke archives as Index Number 973 and titled ‘Chaise Louis XV’. They are upholstered in what appears to be their original needlepoint cushioned seats. As to be expected of François Linke’s ‘Art Furniture’, they are most delicately proportion but supremely well-made and sturdy. They are designed for use as a side chair or bedroom chair.

This model of chair was made by Linke beginning around the time of his Gold Medal winning stand at the 1900 Paris exhibition. The total cost of production was 247.95 francs per chair and the retail price at the 1900 exhibition was 550 francs for the version with more bronze detailing on the seat rail. The present pair are an example of this best model, being especially attractive because they have an abundance of gilt-bronze mounts.

A watercolour of the model is reproduced in Christopher Payne,. François Linke, (1855 – 1946), The Belle Époque of French Furniture, Antique Collectors’ Club, (Woodbridge, UK), 2003, pl. 163, p. 154.

François Linke (1855 – 1946) was the most important Parisian cabinet maker of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and possibly the most sought after cabinet maker of his period.

Object Literature

Payne, Christopher. François Linke, (1855 – 1946), The Belle Époque of French Furniture, Antique Collectors’ Club, (Woodbridge, UK), 2003.

Object Details