‘Table des Muses’ A Fine Louis XVI Style Centre Table, After The Model By Jean-Henri Riesener

Object Description

‘Table des Muses’

A Fine Louis XVI Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Amaranth, Bois Satiné and Sycamore Marquetry Centre Table, By François Linke, After The Model By Jean-Henri Riesener.

Index Number 251.

Signed ‘F. Linke’ to edge of top

The elaborate marquetry top depicts an allegory of Astronomy and Geometry, personified by the Muses Urania and Calliope holding a telescope and a pair of compasses, sitting beside an armillary sphere. The border is richly veneered with paterae and acanthus scrollwork. The frieze has charmingly detailed marquetry panels with putti playing with scientific instruments. The front with a central frieze drawer. The octagonal tapering legs with acanthus cast sabots.

France. Circa 1895.

Object History

This table is superb version of the famous royal example supplied by Jean-Henri Riesener in 1771 for Louis XVI and now on display at the Petit Trianon at Versailles.

This famous table is known to have been replicated by Beurdeley, probably in response to the public exhibition of the Riesener’s original table at the Union centrale des Beaux-Arts appliqués à l’Industrie in Paris in 1880.

The Linke Archive records that this model of table was first made by Linke circa 1894 under Index Number 251. It is recorded in Linke’s Blue Daybook that Linke has written beside the entry ‘moi’, indicating that he himself worked on it. Linke is also known to have made this model with a marble top in place of the marquetry which is true to the original. The time for the cabinet work is listed to have taken between 110 and 137 hours and 83 ½ hours for a simplified version.

Object Literature

Payne, Christopher. François Linke, (1855 – 1946), The Belle Époque of French Furniture, Antique Collectors’ Club, (Woodbridge, UK), 2003. p.490.

Object Details