An analysis of copies of French royal furniture by François Linke

Christopher Payne

'We have not honoured our forefathers enough.
They were accomplished even in the minutest
objects they bequeathed to us ... The true carriers of
progress are those for whom the point of departure
is respect for the past and for our ancestors."
lntroduction
This article is intended to give a detailed view of
a selected group of copies of French eighteenth-
century royal furniture made by François Linke
(Pankraz 1855 - Paris 1946). lt will analyse the
wages paid for selected skills and the time involved
for the various disciplines, concentrating on the
C cabinetmakers, bronze casting, chasing, mounting
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and gil ding casts. This is valuable inform ation if we
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are to understand more completely the importance
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copy as perfected in England and France for the
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Dasson , or Fourdinois to name but a few, tried to
copy the carcass or interior fittings such as locks
and hinges on the furniture they made; in all
recorded cases concentration was on the external
finish , not the interior, and there was no intention
to deceive. The copies are examples of superb
craftsmanship; it is arguably more difficult to make
a faithful copy or reproduction than to make a piece
to a new design. This has proved to be even more
difficult, if not almost impossible, in the twenty-
first century as many of the skills accumulated in
Paris from circa 1700 to circa 1940 have been lost .
This article will end with a case study which
develops this theme and shows just how important
the 're-learning' of the former cabinetmakers '
skills are if copies are to be made today of the
similar quality.
Linke was bom in what is toda y the Czech Republic,
then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; his

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4th Marquess of Hertford in the 1850s and as mother tongue was the German Sudetendeutsche
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LL. championed by the South Kensington Museum di alect. He trained locall y between the ages of
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"D Townsend in 1894. 2 The importance of copies was Despite working twelve to thirteen hours a day
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underlined by the practice in Paris in the early 1900s on the bench , earning fifty centimes per hour, he
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government ministries so that the originals could 1881 he had managed to set up his own workshop ,
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a. be preserved, protected and displayed by the testament to his exacting training, his work ethic
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<1l made it easier for cabinetmakers to study period soon became pre-eminent amongst his peers. As
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Musée Rétrospectif in 1865 and the Exposition to business he kept meticulous records that survive
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where celebrated it ems of furniture from th e
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devoted a room in the newly built Petit Palais to
Louis XIV furniture. Further confirmation of state
interest in such work is noted in Linke's daybook
50 for the 1900 exhibition, where he commented that
the presidentof the Conseilmunicipal carne to visit his
stand on 24t h October and 'was interested in co pies
offurniture in museums' .3 It must be stressed that
neither Linke nor his contemporaries such as the
firms of Sormani Fils, Durand , Krieger, nor his
immediate predecessors such as the Beurdeleys,
almost intact and which allow us to examine his
work practices in a way that is probably unique
fora world-class furniture maker. His meticulous
numbering system enables us to follow th e
individual pieces of furniture he made from their
inception to completion and sale.
Cultural life in France during the second half of the
nineteenth century was continuall y torn between
a desire for the old and the struggle to produce
something new. A photo graph of Linke 's highl y
accla imed stand at the Paris Exposition Universel!e
in 1900 clearly shows his contemporary blend of the
Louis XV Rococo style merged with Art Nouveau
(figure 1). The inn ovative design and sculpture ofthis
Figur e r The Linke stand at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle, showing the copy of the Fontain ebleau regulator and a display table after
the 1784 Weisweiler table .

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was a collaboration between Linke and the sculptor pocketbooks but by 1901 the details of all his :::J
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Léon Messagé, and Linke was awarded with a gold production were entered into specially printed Ol

medal for his efforts.4 In the photograph an exact leather and brass-bound books - the registres.It '<V,
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copy of a piece of eighteenth-century furniture can is not clear if these registreswere available ready- ....,
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be identified, the Louis XV Fontainebleau longcase printed or if Linke designed and ordered them n
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clock, and also a pastiche of the Weisweiler dressing himself . Each page is numbered and each new (1)
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table made for Marie-Antoinette. It had been Linke's model of Linke furniture is allocated that number, ....,
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intention to fill the 1900 stand with twenty -five ofhis as are subsequent editions of the same model .,,
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'modern' pieces but the pressure on the workforce, (figure 3). This numbering system appears to be :::J
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believed to be some 120 craftsmen at its peak , was unique to Linke's workshop practice; the allocated
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immense and only sixteen were finished on time. number for each model is also stamped on each Ol

Linke, like many of his contemporaries, had been set of cabinetmaker's plans, each loek and each 2'
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making co pies of eighteenth -century furniture from key. Every craftsman handed in a chit to show how ;:;:
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the early 1880s. The combination of the pressure of many hours he had worked on a particular model, -,
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time and a sound business mind encouraged him to quoting the number for easy identification and '<
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compromise his new design ethic and to put co pies transfer to the daybooks. By the time of the pre- ~
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on his stand ; his original intentions can clearly be printed registresLinke listed twenty-four different ,()
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seen on his floor plan which excludes the ' copies' disciplines on each page , set out in the approximate V,

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(figure 2). order that the work would have been carried out :,

on a piece of furniture (although in practice as "

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Linke ' s Austro-Hungarian training and German
methodology may have contributed to his being
a most exacting employer and he expected the
very highest standards of workmanship from his
craftsmen . This discip line manifested itself in
a unique set of documents that set out in ever-
increasing detail the work involved in each piece
of furniture made in the Linke workshops . From
the earl y 1880s he kept personal , well-thumbed
much as possible of the work would be carried
out simultaneously). The first of these categories
was labelled ' Bois ', the last 'Tourn age' , with space 51
for handwritten notes at the bottom that included
electric wiring, a relativel y new element of earl y
twentieth-century furniture making; for example
the electric wiring of the candle arms for the bure au
du Roi, number 710, was noted at th e bottom of th e
page for th at model.
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Figure 2 Linke's original floor plan for his 1900 exhibition Figure 3 The Linke registre en try for the lacquer commode
stand. 1810 'South Kensington'.
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give unique information made by Guillaume Benneman in 1787 for the wife
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hour and which type of discipline commanded a oiseaux' commode (Linke number 776). The exact
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0 7 a.m. in the summer and 8 a.m. in the winter; one used to model, for example, the complex bronzes.
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C: and a halfhours were allowed for lunch, taken at II Another purchase at the Marc hand sale were models
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ofwine at 4.30 p.m. Linke adopted the guidelines commode (figure 4); originally made in the late
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a. of the Chambre Syndicale dating from 1880, which 1730s and attributed to Antoine-Robert Gaudreau
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ro basic wage was 48 francs a week, paid fortnightly. Cressent), this was one of the loans made by the 4th
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..... own tools, which would cost approximately 150 the course of the exhibition an opportunity was
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francs. The average wage for a cabinetmaker was taken to take squeezes or exact measurements of the
..... 2,448 francs p.a. ifhe worked without overtime for mounts so as to make nineteenth-c entury patterns.
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> 306 days a year, but most worked far longer hours. However, by June 1900, the year Linke made his
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In contrast a foreman or contremaîtrewould earn first example ofthis model, the original Gaudreau
approximately 4,000 francs p.a., whereas a good commode was again on public displa y in Manchester
salesman could earn between 5,000 and ro,ooo Square at the newly opened Wallace Collection.
52 francs p .a. Linke noted in his undated pocketbook 'Collection
To facilitate the making of royal copies Linke spent Wallace' and 'voir co mode' [sic). He went on to
considerable sums buying bronze master models at make this model five times (Linke number 793) ,
public auctions. For example, he spent 3,803 francs the first started by August 1900 and th e last finished
at the Marchand sale in March 1897 on thirtee n lots in 1917. The measurements of the original and the
including some models from the most celebrated Linke replicas vary slightl y, due to differences in the
royal pieces , such as those from the commode marble: Linke using his preferred brèche violette
Figure 4 Linke 's copy of the commode by Gaudrea u, nu mber Figure 5 One of a pair of cab inets after the mode l in th e
793 , 'Commode Wallace' . Louvre, Linke numb er 2488 , made in 1913.

or fleur de pêcher marble rather than the brèche he have been allowed to take squeezes ? Ther e is
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d'Alep of the original. Veneered in bois violette Iike an other possibility: ju st before Linke st art ed to ::,
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the Gaudreau original , it took one of his workers, ma ke his vers ion of the se Boulle pieces, a pair that Il)

Pellion, 389 hours to do the cabinetwo rk for which had been made for the 4th Marquess of Hert ford '<
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he was paid 85 centimes per hour. It seems that the carne onto the Paris art market. Sir John Murr ay ....,
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bronz e master patt erns in th e Marchand sale wer e Scott had inh erit ed many of th e Hertfor d copies n
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not complete for this commode as Linke had to from Lady Wallace and after his death his Iegatee m·
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commission a Monsieur Peyrin of 73 rue Taitbout sold much ofhis inher itance to the dealer Seligman; 0....,
to re-model twelve different mounts at a cost of it is quite pos si bie that this is the moment that they ~
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650 francs. The mou nts of the first 1900 commode wer e copied . In an arti cle describin g the Hert ford n
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were gilded usin g 'imi tation ' gold buton e year later pair in Murray Scott 's Parisian apartm ent in 19n
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th e second copy was gilded 'au mercur e' fora pric e Morris wrot e: 'Round thi s room sta nd late replicas Il)

of only 35 francs mor e, that is, 215 francs. Called of tho se Boull e cabin ets which are in th e Louvre,
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by Linke the 'Comode Wallace' [sic] , the to tal cost and show Louis XIVfigur ing in heroic costum e... ' ,s ;:;:
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price in 1900 was 2, 803 francs but he set a ret ail a description which ap tly fits the Linke cop ies . .....
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figure of7 ,500 francs, a considerable ma rk-up if Further research is needed to disco ver how these 0-
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realised. cop ies were made so acc urately by nineteenth- ;;;
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centur y ca bin etm ake rs: wh eth er makers were .n
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A pair of ca bin ets on st and s, copi ed by Link e allowe d access to the Mobili er Na tional or the V\
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between 1913 and 1914 from th e pair by Boull e Musé e du Louvre, whe th er th ey made drawings ::,

in the Musée du Louvre , are unique to his oeuvre
(figure 5) . The daybo ok entries are so pr ecise that
the y even show th at Linke himself work ed on them
on 31 Decemb er 1913, which would seem unusu al
for a 58 year-old cab in etm ake r turn ed su ccessfu l
bu siness man . Link e called th em 'meub les bahut
Boulle a deu x corps d' apr ès Ie Musée du Louvre en
marqueterie ' [sic]. How <lidLinke cop y th e bron zes
fro m cabin ets in th e Louvre? He might wel! have
been allowe d to take meas ur em ent s but would
and me asurement s or we re actu ally allowed to ~
take sque ezes , or wheth er similar access had bee n
facilita ted durin g the Paris Commun e. Until the n
any explanations remain spe culation. 53
Amo re detai led study ofLi nke cop ies of five Louis
XVI comm odes th rows Iittl e ligh t on the sti ll
unex pl ained subj ect of exactly how these copies
were made. The Linke arch ive has black and white
photogra ph s of the orig in al comm odes tak en
 Figure 6 Linke's copy of the Riesener commode, number ro,
'Commode Fontainebleau'.
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Figure 7 Linke's cop y of commode nu mber 203 , after the Figure 9 An offici al Louvre photograph of circa 1890, of a
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Stockel exampl e. commod e copied by Linke as numb er 776 .
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by the Musée du Louvre in circa 1900. The items

54 anal ysed ar e Linke numbers 775 , 776 and 777, but
we ha ve no detail of how the master models were
made or by whom (figures 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10). The
minute detail examined is taken from Linke's blue
daybooks , which date from circa 1890 to 1900. In
some cases Linke has clearl y estimated the cost of
an item , or rounded the figure up (or down).

Figure 10 An official Louvre photograph of circa 1890. of a

commode copied by Linke as number 777.

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Façon (Bakman? 406.5 hours) 17.750/0 Dessin 50 1.31%
35°
Bois 100 5.08% Façon (Harvalich 848 hours) 678 17.71%

Cuivre 230 11.67% Bois 300 7.84 0/0

Cise lure (Sartori - 53 pieces) 250 12.69% Cuivre 500 13.06%
Monteu r 190 9.640/0 Ciselure (Feret) 20.25 °/o
775
Doreur (Poly) 320 16.24°/o Monteur (Laurent paid 430) 12.25° /o
469
Tourneur 10 0.51%
Doreur (Poly 6 Septembre) 300 7.83 °/o
Deco upeur 20 1.01°/o
Tourneur 0 .13°/o
Marb re 150 7.73°/o
Canneleurs 50 1.3, 0/0
Fourniture 100 5.08%
Decoupeur 50 1.3, 0/0
Ferrure 30 1.52°/o
Marbre (55 mm thick) 400 10.450/0
Marqueterie (Fauchon) 240 12.18°/o
Fourniture 200 5.23 0/0

Actua l total 3,160 francs Ferrure 50 1.31°/o

Total for percentage purposes 1,970.00 francs

Actual total 3,827 francs
Total for percentage purposes 3,827 francs

Table r Number 10, circa 1894: 'Comode fontainebleau' [sic]. Table 4 Number 776 , 1895- 1899: ' Com mod e ois ea u'.

Dessin Dessin 135 4.34°/o

Façon (Gustafson 449.5 hours) 8.05°/o Façon (Moulinier 466 hours) 372.80 2°/o
Bois 200 4-47°/o Bois 200 6.44 °/o
Cuivre 200 4-47°/o Cuivre 220 7.08 %
Ciselure (possibly Feret) 700 15.66% Ciselure (Feret) 612 19.7%
Monteur (Laurent paid 430) 300 6.71% Monteur (Laurent paid 430) 366 11.78%
Doreur (Poly) 320 7.16% Doreur (Poly) 35° 11.27 °/o

Tourneur 10 0 .22% Tourneur 12 0.39 010

Decoupeur 25 0.56% Canneleur 0.16°/o
Gainerie Decoupeur 40 1.29°/o
Glace Marbre (5 pieces, 55 mm thick) 440 14.16%
Marbre (5 pieces) 5.030/0 but taking the top only, supplied by Huvé 35° 11.26 %

Fournîture 3.36% Fourniture 200 6-440/0

Ferrure 0 .71°/o Ferrure 31.70 1. 0 2°/o

Actual total 4,469.00 francs(rounded up by Linke to 4,500) Actual total 3,106 .5 francs
Total for percentage purposes Total for percentage purposes 3,106.5 francs

Table 2 Numbe r 203 , 1894-1897: no title. Table 5 Numb er 77 7 : 'Commode Etage re fleurs de lys' or
' m euble d'a ppu i du Louvre'.

Façon (Harva lich 688 hours) 585 19.06%

Bois 200 6.55 0/0
Cuivre 260 8.52% Linke only made this mod el onc e, in maho gan y
Ciselure 600 19.66%
as the origin al but with a fleur de pêch er marble
slab , ret ailin g at 8,500 franc s. It would app ear
Monteur (Laurent paid 430 ) 380? 12.45%
th at Linke or his cabinetm aker wa s able to
Doreur (Maury) 230 7.54 %
have a good look at th e origin al as, wr itt en in
Tourneur 10 0.38%
the da ybook , is noted 'de Benemann? Pas de
Decoupeur 50 1.64%
signat ur e' .
Marbre (5 pieces) 300 9.83 %
Fourniture 260 8.52 %
Table 3 Number 775. (gilded on 11th November 1901):
Ferrure 32 1.05%
·commode a Arm es·.

Actual total 3,0 52.20 francs

Total for percentage purpos es 3,052 francs
 Wood: Ca binet: Bro n ze: Chasin g: Gilding : Mountin g: Marble :
Linke No.
10 5.08 17.75 11.67 12.69 16.24 9.64 7.73

203 4.47 8.05 4.47 15.66 7.16 6.71 5.o3

6.55 19.06 8.52 19.66 7.5 4 12.45 9.83

775
776 7.84 17.71 13.06 20.25 7.83 12.25 10.45

777 6.44 12 7.08 19.7 11.27 11.78 11.26

Av. % 6.08 14.95 8.96 17.59 10 10.57 8.86

Table 6 The table shows the average cos t of the seven main disciplines for the five commodes analysed as a percentage of the total cost , excluding
modelling the master mo dels. In conclusion , the average cost of the metalwork was 36.55 % of the total cost; ifone adds in the cost of mounting the
finished bronz e work this figure ris es to 47.12%, showing that the metalwork on average amo unted to almost half the production cost.

Linke's copies of t he ' bureau du Roi' drawings of the original desk but not to make
In 1955 Pierre Verlet, head curator offurniture and moulds. 10 Gonse fur ther recorded that Dasson was
works of art at the Musée du Louvre, descri bed aide d by the scul ptors Aubert and Dallier, whi ch
the 'bureau du Roi' delivered to Louis XV in 1769 suggests that Dasson had to make some, if not all of
thus: 'Il n'est pro bablement pas au monde de the patterns from scratch, the sculp tors modelling
meubles plus célèbre que Ie grand "Secrétaire à from measu red drawings.
cylindre" ..... .' 6 In the opening of his chapter on The Dreschler models would most likely have
the desk Francis Watson described it as the 'chef- been made from measured drawings after the desk
d'oeuvre de l'ébéniste rie française ' .7 The original had been removed from the Tuileries in the early
desk was started for Louis XV by Jean -François 1850s and before it was delivered to the Empress
Oeben (maître 1759) and completed by his successor Eugenie at her cabinet de travail at Saint-Cloud .
C Jean-Henri Riesener (maître 1768) and was delivered The personal friendship between Napoléon III
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nine years of painstaking worl<. afforded the latter's craftsmen access to the desk
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C The mounts for the original desk were modelled during the years that the desk was in store during
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E 1749). Careful scrutiny of the original notes made by the Empress Eugène to her cabinet de travail at
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LL. by Riesener suggests that there were no patterns Saint-Cloud by 1855. If it needed any attention or
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C for this desk as it was a pièceunique, the wax models repair surely this would have been the moment ; if
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for the mounts annihilated during the process itwere to be re-polished, a common occurrence in
0 of pouring the molten metal. Despite extensive Paris, the bronzes would have to be taken off and
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C documentation about many of Linke's purchases so possibly it was at this time that the Marquess 's
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E ofvarious models for furniture mounts, there are agents were able to take squeezes, if indeed they
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no records to indicate how he obtained the models were. Subsequently, Verlet has written that the
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E to create his own copies of this famous piece of
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one for the King of the Belgians and one given to
furniture . Grand Duke Paul ofRussia by President Loubet of
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the desk was made for the 4th Marquess ofHertford It is difficult to establish categorically whether
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between 1853 and 1870 . Now in the Wallace
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Collection, it has been extensively described and
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in Paris and argues that the maker was probabl y
Dreschler, confirmed by Mestdagh who writes that
Carl Dreschler is recorded in 1867; the year Henry
56 Dasson took over his workshop. 9The next example
is the desk made by Henry Dasson (1825-1896) , the
first of the widel y known makers under the Third
Republic to have made the desk, which he exhibited
at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1878. Records
show that the curator of the Mus ée du Louvre in
the 1870s , Barbet de Jouy, allowed Dasson to make
or not the Hertford desk was made in the same
way that Dasson 's sculptors had been forced to
work, with drawings , or if, by way of his intimate
connection with Napoléon III at the French
Imperia! Court , Lord Hertford 's cabinetmakerwas
able to take casts of the mounts . Intriguingl y, in
December 1853 the Marquess wrote from Paris to
his London agent Mawson, in reference toa cabinet
at the Gore House Exhibition ofFrench furniture ,
' ... that some dealers we know, have had the fine
things ofthis collection surmoulé so that they wil!
be able to obtain perfect copies & from drawings
it is impossible . " 2 This important statement
ma y be the answer to the dilemma of how such
Figure II Linke's daybook entry for the bureau du Roi, circa 1900.

bronzes were modelled. It would be technically
challenging but not impossible to make accurate
moulds of such elaborate mounts by drawings
alone, as Dasson had apparently been forced to
do by Barbet de Jouy. It is more likely that Dasson
already had a good number of at least the principle
places. Linke Zwiener and Dasson, Linke used the
existing version of the bureau du Roi, that is to
say the version as altered in 1794 at the time of the
Revolution, as his model. The model as delivered
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in 1769 had the interlaced 'L's of the King at either :J
p.,
end, replaced in 1794 by the two oval biscuit :J
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master patterns and only needed to draw or tak e plaques, made by the Sèvres factory in 1794 but '<
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squeezes of some of the more intric ate mounts, supplied by Wedgwood to Linke depicting L'Amour ....,
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and, more importantly, accurately measure how the et l'Hyménéeand LesTroisGraces. The large gilt-bronze (')
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whole complicated puzzle fitted together. What is plaque at the rear of the desk originally had seven "'2.
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of interest here is that an aristocratie figure such children representing the Virtues holding a portrait ....,
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as the 4th Marquess ofHertford should have such a of Louis XV,changed toa portrait of Minerva after ::\'
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hands-on knowled ge of the technica! requirements the Revolution. Also on th e original vers ion Apollo :J
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for remodellin g bron ze mounts. was holding a lyre and Calliope three volumes of -,
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During his career Linke made four copi es of th e Homer, these were lost before any nin eteenth - '<
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bur eau du Roi, in circ a 1901, 1910, 1922 and the century versions wer e made as non e show th ese
early 1940s. His exquisite drawing and detailed attributes.
castings are shown in figure rr. Generally , his
high quality master patterns, with the 'FL' initials It is interesting to compare the various castin gs for
and serial identification numbers cold stamped th e principle disciplines on the first Linke bur eau
in sequ enc e or sometim es simply incis ed ' Linke' , du Roi copy and th e two completed in 1910 and
date to th e latter part of th e nin eteenth century . 1922: V1
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How ever, one of th e most import ant mounts for th e :J

bure au du Roi, numb er 40n, the seated figure of "'

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Calliop e who supports acanthus candle arm s on the 1901 1910 1922
right (facin g) th e desk , is not marked. On careful Cha sing 2,755 2,261 7,5 87
examin ation it is evident that this mast er pattern is Mercury gildin g 2,500 2,500 5,000 57
th e very on e used for the Wallace Coll ec tion de sk; Cabin et makin g 3,827 2,2 63 9,310
th e redu ction on th e Wallace exampl e corr espond s Ma rqu etry 1,750 1,750 3,825
with the expe cted shrink age, the facial details are Mounting bronzes 1,740 2,107 7,604
identical and , perh aps even more tellin g, the plu g- Locks 2 ,2 0 0 1,250 5,500
hol es for th e feeders to allow th e bron ze to flow Total 20,057 17,193 49, 360
into the upp er back of th e figur e are in identical
 1786 1907
A meticulous note in the lower margin of the
chasing 1200 livres 531 francs Bo
Journal for 1922, which by now had spread over
gilding 1200 850
two pages, listed the casts for electrical fittings, a
marquetry 442 240
luxury not fitted to the 1910 desk . Two plugs were
wood 165 200
fitted at 3.80 francs each and altogether fourteen
leather 28 livres 10 90
metres of material, silk and torsade or fringe
was used for the shades. D'Orléans, normally a
metalworker but presumably by the 1920s doing Linke titles his daybook en try for his copy of the
gentler work, was responsible for this work, which bureau du Roi as 'Grand Bureau LXV du Louvre
took twenty-two hours at 3.75 francs an hour to - amaranthe et bois gris marqueterie de couleur'.
complete. The 1922 copy was part of the huge order It may be pertinent that he calls it 'du Louvre'
for the King of Egypt, Fuad I and is now in the confirming that the original desk was at the Louvre
King's Suite at Abdeen Palace in Cairo. 13 at this date, making it easier to view and copy. 1s
The fourth and final version of the bureau du Roi
was started during the 1939-1945 Second World
War, during the German occupation of Paris, when
Dessin 800 3.99%
Linke was 88 years old. The wood was charged
Façon (5 cabinetmakers) 3827 19.08%
out at 600 francs in 1922 and 1,000 in 1943. The
Bois 500 2.49 O/o
complex locking mechanism, an earlier version
Cuivre 1100 5.48%
made by Clément Linke & Cie in 1920 for 5,500
Ciselure (Sartori et Morand) 2755 13.730/0
francs, cost 8,000 francs when made by Vasseur
Monteur (3 craftsmen) 2700 13.46%
C: in 1944. The cabinetmaker for the lastversion was
0 Doreur (Picard Mercure pierre) 2500 12.46%
..., Eckhardt, who had worked on the two other listed
rn Tourneur 10 0.05%
ê: versions of 1910 and 1922, the latter at a cost of
cu Decoupeur Bo 0.4°/o
V,
C: 59,132 francs. His casts for making the carcass of
0 Marbre 125 o.62%
u the 1940s version were rr6,354 francs.
~ Fourniture 1740 8.67''10
::::, Linke followed in the footsteps ofBenneman and
.'!= Ferrure 30 0.15°/o
E adapted the desk to use the lower half as a bureau
::::,
Marqueterie (Fauchon) 1750 8.72%
LL. plat, avoiding the huge cost of the complicated
"O
C: tambour work and opening mechanism of the
rn Total 20,057 100.0%
"O cylinder. The difference in weight between the
0
0 cylinder and flat top desks made by Linke gives an Table 7 Number 7ro: 'Grand Bureau LXVdu Louvre'
3
C: indication as to the complexity of the cylinder; his
0
E Journal notes the different net weight as 431 and
::::,
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192 kilos respectively. As with the Oeben-Riesener
0
a. cylinder desk, a small wax model of the flat top
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>. desk was made for Linke by Martin 'd'après Le linke no. Wood Cabinetwork Bronze Chasing Gilding Mounting
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rn Bureau Existent a Versailles ' [sic]. 14 Linke lists 710 2.49 19.08 5.48 13.73 12.46 13.46
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0 both versions of his desk under the same re.9istre 710 bis 3.56 14.53 missing 19.52 15.14 13.99
number, 710. The first recorded date of a Linke
version of the bureauplat on its own is 1907, made Table 8 Percentage cost for the cylinder desk 710 and the flat top
for Baron Empain. Another, ordered in the same writing desk 7ro bis .
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year, was probably for stock and not finished until
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> December 1909, finally packed for transportation
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to New York on the 9th December 1912. These The detailed calculations show that 9,234 francs
two examples and the third of 1912 cost a similar was spenton the master models and a further 2,312
amount to produce, between 4,202 francs 70 and francs on the 'surmoulage'. The five cabinetmakers
58 4 ,372 francs 60 each. worked on the desk for a combined 4,rr5 hours
The cabinetwork and marquetry cutting of each at between 80 centimes and I franc per hour, an
of the desks, both flat top and cylinder versions, ave rage of 9 3 centimes per hour. Pichon, Arnold
are meticulously detailed in the Linke re.9istre.lt and Dubois mounted the bronzes at between 90
is interesting to compare casts of making the and 95 centimes per hour, totalling 2,699 francs
Benneman version in 1786 with the Linke version 85 centimes, which Linke rounded up to 2,700
of the flat top desk in 1907 to 1909: francs.
 Dessin 240
Façon 816.85 14.530/0
Bois 200
Ciselure (Sarto ri) 1096.50 19.52 %
Monteur (Dubois 734 hours at 0.90, 131 at 0.95) 785.60 13.99 %
Doreur 850 15.140/0
Tourneur 6 0.11%
Decoupeur 15
Marbre
Fourniture 100
Ferrure
Marqueterie (Fauchon)
Total 5,615.65 100.0%
Table 9 Number 7w bis: 'Tab Ie Bureau Bas du 7w' .
Taking advantage of a willing market and exploiting
his expensive bronze patterns of the bureau du Roi
to the full, Linke used the master models again,
adapt in g them to make a commode (Linke number
720), a ber9ère(Linke number 2165), a bibliothèque
(Linke number 2429) and a piano (Linke number
2400).
The twenty-first-century completion
Linke's unfinished copy of the cylinder desk was
abandoned in the early 1940s with the German
occupation and remained unfinished after his death
(figure II). It was sold at Sotheby's in 2ooi 6 and
has recently been completed on the instructions
of a collector by Yannick Chastang Ltd .'7 A private
collector had purchased the desk in 1995 as part
of the entire furnishings of the Linke family
ing apartment on the Quai Henri IV in Paris on the
-46 demise of Linke's granddaughter Genevieve. The
.99 catalogue en try in 2007 stated, 'The buyer of the
present lot may consult with the Linke archivist
to discuss with the completion of the desk.' After
discussion it was ag reed to !end the entire set of
Linke master patterns to allow for the work to be
carried out, without which the project would have
been rendered imperfect, if not impossible.
Inspection of copies of the original bureau du Roi,
the Drexler example at the Wallace Collection,
the Zwiener example at Herrenchiemsee, a Linke
example at Abdeen Palace in Cairo, one by Dasson
at Montlu çon and others by Beurdeley and Jansen,
shows that the y are all different in detail and in
some cases the difference is substantial. These
differences are most marked in the interpret ation of
the bronze mounts and the freehand dra wing of the
4.640/0
marquetry. In working on the unfinished versi on
by Linke, Chastang encountered many difficulties
3.56%
that had to be resolved one by one to complete the
project. Craftsmen would have relati vely eas ily
solved most of these technica! difficulties in the
1850 to 1940 period but today the skills have in the
main been lost and had to be worked out anew.
0 .23°/o
At the time of writing in June 2012 the project is
2.22°/o
on-going but it is hoped that it would be finished
0.02°/o
by the time th is paper is delivered. 18 To date
0.53010
Chastang and his team have spent over 5 ,ooo hours
7.57°/o
of practical work, more if the 'development' casts
of re-learning old skills were taken into account.
The unfinished Linke example had been veneered,
the marquetry engraved and the wood polished
but repair was needed to the complex opening
mechanism of the tambour top and impro vem ents
made to ensure it worked properly . This work al one
was extremely challenging to fit the top whilst
keeping the mechanism intact.
Silicone rubber moulds were quickly made an d the
masters returned to the archive . The first major
problem was casting the mounts in sand. After
much trial and error it was decided that no one
could do sand casting today to a high enough
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standard needed for the desk. Sand casting ::,
was expensive, the quality of the casts varie d "'
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enormously, necessitating too much tim e to "'
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prepare for chasing an d they were far too thick. 0
......
Lost wax casting was quick when using mod ern n
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silicone rubber moulds but the wax shrinks on iiï
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cooling and the silicon rubber so soft that there 0
......
was considerable distortion on cooling . The long ~
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distribution of the flow when using the lost wax n
::::r
techniqu e caused high porosity, resulting in many
0
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hours filling hol es in the casts . Considerable time
was spent bendin g the cooled casts to the correct
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.....
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shape of the carcass. ;:;:
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Jt was soon realised that modern silicone brass ;;;
(bronze) was too hard to be bent , machined or 0-
chased. Despite this it needed less heat and had
.,,
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good fluidity. It rook six months of experimentation ~
0
to find a foundry who were int erested enough in V,
r-
the project to do tests and work out the mixture of ::,
an ideal alloy. Modern commercial brass is 60% ~
copper to 40% zine; Chastang experimented an d
finally used an alloy of 80% copper to 20% zine
with the critically important addition of a little tin 59
and lead to help the flow in the pour. The use of a
suita ble , softer alloy of approx imately two-thirds
low lead brass and one -third mod ern brass saved
some 30% on subsequent chasing costs.
The chasing and fitting of the complex mounts
was done in house , taking approximatel y 2,500
 Figure 12 Linke's unfinished copy of the bureau du Roi, circa 1940. (See also colour section page 86.)

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·.;::; hours, with more time spent fitting than chasing. solutions. The English gilders were using a bath
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Chasing moves the metal around enough to make of sulphuric acid and one bath with contaminated,
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C the cast distorted, however slightly so the initia! dirtywater a practice that had to be redressed to get
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u chasing was done, then a final fit followed by more the casts clean enough. The casts were to be sealed
~
:, chasing. This was done on a 'gabarait' similar to with a primary coat of nickel plate and then copper
:!::'.
E those surviving in the Linke archive but made out before the gold . However, the long mouldings on
:,
LL of modern breezeblock, as it does not burn when the Iower part of the desk proved to be toa big for
.:,
C the alloy is heated. A major challenge was deciding available baths for plating and Yannick Chastang
"'
.:,
0
where to cut the finished and chased mounts so that had to make a new stainless steel bath large enough .
0 the cuts could be disguised when fitted. It might be Itwas not possible to provide the required electrical
3
C noted that Linke demanded that it should not be supply to electroplate the Jonger lengths, which
0
E possible to slide a piece of cigarette paper between were mercury gilded in Paris. To conclude I must
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the fitted mount and the veneer that it overlaid. reiterate that the research into Linke's castings is
0
0.. Wood and veneer had to be shaved off to fit the still on-going and I want to thank Yannick Chastang
E
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V,
mounts. Butting two pieces of the finished bronze for sharing his considerable practical knowledge
together created a perfect shape when cold but with me and his excitement at re-discovering 'lost '
0
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as soon as they were soldered together there was techniques .
...,
"' slight but enough distortion so that the offered
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.':! mount would no Jonger fit to Linke's standard . Christopher Payne
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The long pieces of moulding were machine made Furniture historian, author, broadcaster &
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...,
C with a CNC router on a 60% copper to 40% zine lecturer
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>
(1) machining brass bar. This was the quickest and Visiting Professor at Beijing University
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cheapest method but in itself created problems as cp@)linkefurniture.com
the act of machining releases tension, which could
possibly result in a r% bend over a metre length ,
60 enough to ensure that the moulding would not fit
precisely . Electroplating is considerably cheaper
than mercury gilding and most of the casts were
to be electro-gilded which entails cleaning in acid.
In the naw defunct Paris workshops there were as
many as twelve different baths for cleaning , with
solutions such as sulphuric acid , water and saline
 Figure 13 The Linke de sk as finished by Yannick Ch as tang Ltd. in 2012. (See also colour section pag e 86.)

Endnote s 10 Louis Gans e, L'exposition de 1878, 1878, p . 354 .

1M. du Cleuziou, 'Les origines de notre II P. Verlet, LeMobilierroyalfrançais, vol. II, p . 73.
ceramique nationale ', Revuedesarts décoratifs ,5 12 Wallace Collection. The Hertford MawsonLetters,
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(1884 - 1885), pp. 263-266. 1981, p. 50, letter 37, nth December 1853. :::J
p.)
2 W.G. Paulson Townsend, Measured Drawings of 1 3 Located in El-Gomhore ya Square Rahbet :::J
p.)

FrenchFurniturefromthe Collectionin South Kensington Abdin, Cairo Governorate , Egypt . Ther e are '<
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Museum1899. (The South Kensin gton Museum various sp ellin gs of the palace name; here the ...,
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was ren amed the Victori a & Albert Mus eu m in author has used the spelling at the tim e of Link e' s ()
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1899). work at the palace . The desk is partiall y visible on "riï
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3 The primary sources for this article are the following link : http ://www.somalipres s. com/ ...,
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the Linke registres , which survive in a pri vate static/inside_the_abdeen_palace_museum. jpg . ~

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collection. 14 V. Champeau x, Lesindustriesd'art a l'Expo sition :::J

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4 The Gazette du Mobilier st arted its three-p age universelle de 1900 , Paris , r901n85, vol. II, p . 254 .
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spr ead on Linke with the wo rds : 'Reten ez-b ien 1s Verlet (ibidem) st ates that the desk was move d
p.)

ce nom ... ' A. Dubois in th e RevueArtistique& to the Louvre in 1870 , p . 74. .,

16 A Private Collection , Volume II, 19th April, :::J
Industrielleof September 1900 called the four ;:; :
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principal pieces on Linke's 1900 exhibition stand : 200 7, lot 72. ;;;
'Ie clou de l'exposition des arts industri els ' . 11 www.yannickchastan g. com. 0-

s A.F. Morris , ' Sir John Murray Scott's Coll ection 18 Completed in Novembe r 2012.
.,,
'<

ii3
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in th e Rue Laffitt e, Paris', The Connaisseur, XXVII, or,
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1910, pp . 23 1-240 and Part II in The Connaisseur, V,

!:".
XXIX,r9II , pp . 215-222. :::J

6 Quoted in Leburau[sic] du Rai Louis XV de France, "

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published privatel y by Hans Bieder , Liest al, 1972.

(Bieder had been Linke 's forem an in th e 1920-
193os.) 61
7 P. Verlet , Le Mobilier royalf ranç
ais (Par is, 1955),
p. 65.
8 The Wallace Coll ec tion. Catalogue ofFurniture ,
vol. II, 204 (F460) , pp. 1032-1043 .
9 C. Mestd agh , L'Ameublementd'artfrançais1850-

1900, Les Edition s de ]'Amateur , 2010, p . 77.

 Figure 12 Linke' s unfinished copy of the bureau du Roi, circa 1940. (Payne, p. 60)

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