French Ormolu-Mounted Kingwood and Vernis Martin Vitrine by François Linke. François Linke, Index # 76. One mount signed F. Linke. The ‘green registers’ in the Linke Archive title this model ‘Grande vitrine Louis XV 3 corps bois de Violette Panneaux Vernis Martin’, and record that four were made with vernis Martin panels and four with marquetry panels. This cabinet almost certainly pre-dates 1900 when Linke’s name gained greater celebrity with his award winning Stand at the Paris Exposition Universelle of that year. The model is thought to have been conceived as early as the 1880s, but is only first recorded in Linke’s registers in 1902 for a vernis Martin example, painted by Carl Guilbert on for a fee of 150 French francs: just over twice the cost of the marquetry versions.

H:  76″

W:  63″

D:  19-1/2″