Francois Linke Tea Table

A french ormolu-mounted kingwood and Bois Satine parquetry tea table by François Linke, Original Linke title: table à thé Louis XV- plateau glace mobile. As with the rest of Linke’s varied and imaginative production of small tables, the “table à thé Louis XV- plateau glace mobile” was a very popular model at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1900 and there were many subsequent variations, generally produced in Bois de Violette and satiné. From the provisional list in the blue daybook, it would seem that Linke intended to exhibit model number 555 and that for some reason 610 was substituted. This model appears to have been first shown, in its’ most elaborate version, on Linke’s Gold Medal winning stand that drew great acclaim from the French press. Extraordinarily, the Linke records are in many instances so complete that we know that model 610 was only delivered to the 1900 stand in late September 1900, as it was only gilded on September 13th, 1900, indicating that it had less than two months on the exhibition stand. The replica version shown below was produced by Art Heritage in beech wood, hand-made marquetry, and bronze mounts using the lost wax molding technique.