20th Century Royal Francois Link Chest Of Drawers, Oak With Gilt Bronze

FRENCH CHEST OF DRAWERS DESIGN AFTER FRANÇOIS LINKE & LÉON MESSAGÉ
Finely chased, gilded fittings. Solid beech wood top panel mottled marble top above a pair of doors concealed by a laurel, seaweed and cane back water cascade down bowl and a dolphin amidst seaweed, applied with delicate scroll frames and stained floral lattice marquetry in the upper corners and on each lower corner with a floral ray.

This grandiose and opulent commode is Linke's second version (bis) of his famous 'Commode coquille: Coquetterie et Modestie', index number 559. The original model was linked to index number 553, 'Commode Louis XV Figaro (Scène du Barbier de Séville) , and together the two commodes formed an integral and important part of Linke's gold-medal-winning stand at the Paris Exposition of 1900, where they flanked his most monumental work, the Grande Bibliothèque. The 559 chest of drawers was delivered to Elias Meyer in London in September 1909 and after his death in 1925 it was sold on to King Fouad I of Egypt, who had already purchased the 553 model. The two dressers are currently in the Abdeen Palace in Cairo.

The original concept for 559 envisaged corner slides designed in high relief, more clearly reflecting the dresser's title, with coquetry exposing the breasts and slightly covering the modest. With the present variant, however, a design is achieved that is associated with the early days of Louis XV. is consistent, on whose style Linke this extremely successful variant is based. Here the angles become semi-androgynous Amorini and are slightly cropped to evoke traditional espagnolettes. In great Linke fashion, these rich setting variants, as well as the sculptural central mold, were later repurposed for Linke's center table number 965, a copy of which was sold at Christie's, New York, lot 249 (US$377,000) on November 18, 2014. . Index number 965 was actually designed along with 559 for the 1900 Exposition, but was eventually exhibited in 1902, along with a wider range of furniture, at the Salon des Industries du Mobilier (C. Payne, François Linke: The Belle Epoque of French Furniture, Woodbridge, 2003, p. 170). Finally, Linke replaced Léon Messagé's iconic dolphin with the 'amour triomphont' (sic), which appears notably throughout the sculptor's 1890 Louis XV Cahier des Dessins et Croquis style.

So far, two examples of the chest of drawers 559 bis variant have been registered; sold at Sotheby's, New York, 10 May 2000, lot 223 ($220,250) and Christie's, London, 24 February 2005, lot 200 (£220,800). The exciting discovery of the present lot, a third example, revives earlier findings that two chests of drawers were completed in 1903 and 1906. In a study for the chest of drawers sold at Christie's in 2005, Christopher Payne points to the common practice of back-to-back manufacturing used by the more successful Parisian workshops of the time. In this case, the manufacture of up to four chests of drawers is entirely possible, and a close examination of Linke's carpentry practices will provide more clarity as to the date of manufacture of the present lot.
The archive shows that Linke ordered the wood for two frames at a time and that the wood was clearly in stock before the September 1903 launch date of the first dresser. The wood costs were 238 francs 40 (for both bodies) and included, among other things, 11 kilos of kingwood, 4 sheets of satiné, 4 sheets of faux satiné and numerous boards of mahogany of various specifications. The majority of the 1,092 hours of carpentry were provided by Knudsen, with 100 hours of assistance from Viélèle, paid at 85 and 80 centimes per hour respectively. The most expensive expense was the intricate chasing of the 1903 bronze set made by Sartori for 700 francs, while the set for the 1906 version by Goujon was billed at 599 francs. The gilding was carried out according to the traditional Mercure-Pierre method. Chest of drawers 559 bis featured a Fleur de Pêcher marble top, the first being carved by Huvé in 1903. In the register, each marble slab is listed as 4 cm. thick and 60 cm. deep, as in the present lot. Left clerk lists the 1903 marble at 141 cm as the wider, as on the present lot, and the 1906 marble at 140.5 cm. While Payne concludes that the differences may well be due to human error, the greater breadth of the marble top suggests a 1903 production alongside the dresser shown in Linke's original cliché. At the time of construction

Condition report:

Good. Wear consistent with age and use.