Object Description
A Very Fine Louis XV Style
Two-Tier Table à Thé
by François Linke. Index no. 610
The serpentine dual-handled upper-tier with removable glazed tray supported by four gilt bronze putti tritons, the kingwood lower-tier inlaid with cube satiné parquetry, above a shaped frieze centred to the front and reverse with a characteristic crab-like acanthus scallop shell mount, flanked with foliate and shell cast encadrement on cabriole legs tapering to scrolled sabots. The back of the shell mount incised with makers initials “F.L.”
French, circa 1900
Index No. 610
One of François Linke’s signature pieces, this model of étagère table can be found in Linke’s archives as index No. 610. He exhibited the prototype of this model at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle, which employs identical supporting mounts as well as the signature crab-like acanthus mount designed by Leon Messagé. Eleven of these tables à thé are recorded within Linke’s archives. He exhibited subtle variants at the Salon des Industries du Mobilier in Paris in 1902 & 1905, as well as a model with slightly different mounts to the legs at St Louis in 1904 and in Liège in 1905. An acclaimed model, the table à thé often displays the same twin-handled ormolu and glazed tray top, and mounts designed by Léon Messagé.