François Linke bureau plat desk that was a prop in Netflix’s The Crown is on offer at Knight Fine Antiques and Collectables for £45,000.
Dealers Arthur and Harry Knight spotted the desk in Lyon & Turnbull’s September single-owner sale from British production company, the Eccentric Trading Company.
A rare find in auctions, they expected the price to go crazy, but against an estimate of £3000-5000 it was listed as ‘passed’ on sale day and the brothers managed to acquire the item and bring it in for restoration.
The first step was to confirm that the listed maker was correct, as there are fakes of Linke furniture on the market. The Knights confirmed not only that this was authentic, but also that they could date it to almost exactly 1889 through their restoration discoveries, such as a maker’s mark of collaborator A Duval on the mounts, and the presence of locks from Vachette Frères.
The next step was to narrow down where this item had been used as a prop by the production company, and the brothers were certain that it would be in a period piece of entertainment. Arthur did some digging through the Eccentric Trading Company’s social media and found that they had posted quite frequently about The Crown (six series aired from 2016-23 based on the British royal family).
He spent December watching the show on Netflix before his eagle eye saw the exact same desk in a scene from Season 4, Episode 9, 33 minutes in featuring Princess Diana and Prince Charles in Highgrove House for their anniversary. The desk was in the middle of the room and Charles picked up a gift on it to present to Diana. While the Eccentric Trading Company would not be able to confirm this, the brothers discovered that a handle that was missing in the on-screen appearance has since been newly recast and was present in the Lyon & Turnbull sale.
They had also dulled down some of the mounts for this scene, which the brothers brightened back up.
Before its life on television, the desk sold at Christie’s New York in 2001 as part of the Carrie Estelle Doheny (1875-1958) collection. Arthur believes that the production company bought the desk directly from this sale as multiple other lots from the Doheny sale were being sold as part of the Lyon & Turnbull auction.
This desk is now priced at £45,000.
