A Pair of Louis XV Style Carved Giltwood Fauteuils à la Reine

Object Description

An Important Pair of Louis XV Style Carved Giltwood Fauteuils à la Reine, by François Linke.

Each fauteuil having a shaped back with a rocaille carved cresting rail, padded scroll armrests and a serpentine seat, above a shaped apron and scrolling acanthus carved cabriole legs.

Giltwood furniture by Linke is not only rare but can be difficult to identify as it tends to be unmarked. This fine pair of fauteuils can be confidently attributed to Linke, not only in terms of the quality of design and construction but by their similarity to a number of known signed examples for instance those shown in the photograph of Linke’s salon at the Quai Henri IV, (Payne pl. 311-312). The fine quality and depth of carving evident on the present chairs, with their characteristic rocaille decoration and sculptural form, confirm that the chairs are almost certainly by Linke’s hand.

Christopher Payne notes that the best intact single collection of giltwood furniture supplied by Linke is that made for the King of Egypt in the 1920’s. He supplied two hundred Regence style giltwood chairs alone for the Abdeen Palace.

French, Circa 1900.

Object History

François Linke

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. He was born in 1855 in the small village of Pankraz, in what is now the Czech Republic. Records show that Linke served an apprenticeship with the master cabinetmaker Neumann, then in 1875 at the age of 20 he arrived in Paris where he lived until he died in 1946.

Object Literature

Christopher Payne, ‘François Linke, 1855-1946, The Belle Époque of French Furniture’, 2003., pp. 298-299, 311-312.

Object Details