A FINE FRENCH ORMOLU-MOUNTED FLEUR DE PECHER MARBLE FIRE-SURROUND

This splendid fire-surround is based on the celebrated hearth by Verberckt and Trouard with ormolu mounts by Jacques Caffiéri, supplied in 1747 for the bedchamber of the dauphin at Versailles. The model was often copied in the 19th century, including an example circa 1860 installed at Hertford House, Manchester Square, London, and now part of The Wallace Collection (no. F459). Another example, dating to 1860, was also installed in the salon d’Apollon at the Tuileries. Unusually this example is made in fleur de Pêcher marble, which was the favourite marble of François Linke. Another fire-surround, also apparently of fleur de Pêcher marble, was installed by François Linke in the King’s Study at the Ras al-Tin Palace in Alexandria, Egypt (see interior photographed reproduced in C. Payne, François Linke: The Belle Epoque of French Furniture, Woodbridge, 2003, p. 289).