Francois Linke was undoubtedly the most important Parisian ébéniste of his time. Having served an apprenticeship in his home town of Pankraz, Bohemia, the young Linke arrived in Paris in 1875 and set up independent workshops at 170, Rue du Faubourg Saint-antoine in 1881 and later also at 26, Place Vendôme. By the time of the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle, Linke's worldwide reputations a master of high individualism and inventiveness was already established and unmatched by his contemporaries.

His success at the 1900 Exposition Universelle afforded Linke a high degree of financial stability and allowed him to pursue new markets by exhibiting at subsequent international fairs. Like the inventories of contemporaries such as Beurdeley and Dasson, Linke's oeuvre included copies and adaptations of the distinct styles of 18^th century important and royal French furniture. However his most extravagant exhibition pieces combined the Louis XV style with the new Art Nouveau style. Linke's collaborator for his designs was the sculptor Léon Messagé.