A French Louis XVI style mahogany and ormolu mounted desk by François Linke, the later top inset with green gilt tooled leather, with a leaf moulded edge, above a frieze drawer decorated with a mask of Bacchus flanked by cornucopiae, goats and scrolling grapevine, flanked by further panels of scrolling grapevine, leaves, an eagle's head, a bird and a squirrel eating nuts, with corresponding panels to the sides and back, on square tapering legs headed by a flower and leaf patera and applied with ribbon tied garlands of leaves, acorns and grapes, on leaf sabot, c.1900-05, 74cm high, 128.3cm wide, 66cm deep. Linke Index number 118, 'Table Louis XVI, bois d'acajou bronze dores.' The Linke archive has pencil sketches for a similar table in Linke's First Daybooks corresponding with index number 118. It is recorded in the Linke archive that a version of this table was made in 1904-08, another version with a hinged glass top was made in 1919. François Linke (1855-1946) was the most important French cabinet maker of the end of the 19th century. His work reached its apogee with his spectacular stand at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1900 where his Grand Bureau took the gold medal. click here to view the page turning catalogue