François Linke (1855-1946). Display Cabinet

François LINKE (1855-1946). Mahogany and mahogany veneer display cabinet, opening with a central door decorated with a Vernis Martin panel with a gallant scene on a landscape background and with two glass doors at the ends forming display cases, with mirrored backs. Marble top with the higher central part in an ogee shape. Rich ornamentation in chiseled and gilded bronze such as Bacchus masks, garlands of foliage, crossed torches and ribbon knots with foliage, leafy crowns, gadroon friezes, posts and foliage. It rests on six tapered legs with leafy rings. Signed "F Linke" on one of the bronze friezes to the right of the glass door. Louis XVI style. Length: 130 cm - Depth: 40.5 cm - Height: 132 cm. Provenance: Private collection of Mr. Juan Higinio Aztoreca (1840-1903), by descent. Formerly kept in his mansion in Neuilly-sur-Seine. Industrialist and entrepreneur of Spanish origin, Juan Higinio Aztoreca made his fortune in the exploitation of salt and sodium nitrate. He settled in Paris at the very beginning of the 20th century, in a mansion in Neuilly-sur-Seine, which he had entirely decorated and furnished in particular with furniture from the workshop of François Linke, a cabinetmaker in vogue since the Universal Exhibition of 1900. Upon his death, the mansion was sold but the furniture remained in the family. For similar models: - Christie's sale, April 5, 2022, lot 178. (Without the central door in Vernis Martin and with the side doors glazed with mirrored backgrounds). - Christie's sale, 14 November 2019, lot 564. (Same decoration in Vernis Martin but without the side glass doors). Perhaps the finest cabinetmaker and bronze-worker of the late 19th century, François Linke produced, in collaboration with the sculptor Léon Messagé, furniture of the highest quality in his workshop at 170, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Antoine, and later around 1902, he had a showroom at 26, Place Vendôme. In addition to furniture made in an original rocaille style mounted on gilt bronze, Linke also made copies of furniture in the styles of the Ancien Régime of the late 17th and 18th centuries. Although he established his workshop in 1881, Linke first came to prominence at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900, where he was awarded a gold medal. He became the most sought-after cabinetmaker of the early 20th century, producing period furniture and exhibiting at many international exhibitions, including Saint-Louis (1904), Liège (1905) and London (1908). Linke died in 1946, by which time the style with which he had made his name was no longer fashionable, but the workshops continued on a much reduced scale for a time.