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Lot Essay
This very rare fauteuil de bureau, Index Number 703, was made by François Linke to accompany his magnum opus the Grand Bureau, Index Number 550. The original chair and desk were shown together on Linke’s stand at the Paris Exposition universelle of 1900 which established his reputation as the greatest ébéniste of the Belle Époque. The chair is the perfect embodiment Le Style Linke in that it fuses the delicate curvilinear shape of a Louis XV fauteuil with flourishing Art Nouveau sculptural gilt-bronze mounts. The artistic genius behind Linke’s success at the 1900 Exposition was the designer and sculptor Léon Messagé who is credited with creating this new Art Nouveau interpretation of the rococo.
Messagé charged 1,500 francs for the preliminary design and Linke’s workshop chair maker, Monsieur Rimbaut, made a full-size gabarit (template) in poplar in February 1899 for 50 francs. A total of 550 hours was spent on sculpting, of which Leon Messagé’s time alone amounted to 111 hours charged at 5.50 francs per hour. Monsieur Marseiller took 327 hours to make the palissandre veneered frame charged at 1 franc per hour. Other costs were 120 francs for bronze casting, 100 for timber, 1124 for ciselure and 359 for mounting of the bronzes. The total cost of production came to an astonishing 4,631 francs; with a retail price at the 1900 Exhibition of 10,000 francs (op. cit., Payne., p. 147 & 150).
The 1900 exhibition chair was sold in 1901 with the Grand Bureau to the London financier Solomon Barnato Joel (1865-1931), known as Solly Joel, who found fortune in the diamond mines in South Africa. A second example of this chair was made in 1903 and was bought together with another Grand Bureau, by Antonio Devoto, an Italian émigré to Argentina who became one of the richest men in South America. A third chair was made in 1919, possibly for the Bolivian tin magnate Simon Iturri Patiño. Of the three chairs made, only the present example is recorded on the market and the whereabouts of the other two is not known.
Messagé charged 1,500 francs for the preliminary design and Linke’s workshop chair maker, Monsieur Rimbaut, made a full-size gabarit (template) in poplar in February 1899 for 50 francs. A total of 550 hours was spent on sculpting, of which Leon Messagé’s time alone amounted to 111 hours charged at 5.50 francs per hour. Monsieur Marseiller took 327 hours to make the palissandre veneered frame charged at 1 franc per hour. Other costs were 120 francs for bronze casting, 100 for timber, 1124 for ciselure and 359 for mounting of the bronzes. The total cost of production came to an astonishing 4,631 francs; with a retail price at the 1900 Exhibition of 10,000 francs (op. cit., Payne., p. 147 & 150).
The 1900 exhibition chair was sold in 1901 with the Grand Bureau to the London financier Solomon Barnato Joel (1865-1931), known as Solly Joel, who found fortune in the diamond mines in South Africa. A second example of this chair was made in 1903 and was bought together with another Grand Bureau, by Antonio Devoto, an Italian émigré to Argentina who became one of the richest men in South America. A third chair was made in 1919, possibly for the Bolivian tin magnate Simon Iturri Patiño. Of the three chairs made, only the present example is recorded on the market and the whereabouts of the other two is not known.