A Detailed Look at the Hébé Collection
March 2021
The Hébé collection, created by Rinck over the course of 2020, was unveiled in January 2021. It is a feminine vision of the smoking room, rife with symbolism of the goddess of eternal youth, cupbearer to the gods and goddesses. Could it suggest a longing to make merry, to escape these morose times in which we find ourselves? Indeed.
To achieve this result, our teams immersed themselves in both tomes on Greek mythology and the company’s archives, forming a list of all the goddess’s attributes so as to reuse them across different media. This entailed in-depth work on symbols expressed through the ornamental languages, central to the creative process of Rinck’s interior architecture agency, in constant communication with the workshops. This is also the core of our brand identity. Having an in-house Paris interior architecture studio and two workshops specializing in crafting furnishings and outfitting interiors means we can assemble a multidisciplinary team at the very start of the creative process, including furniture and textile designers, as well as artisans from our workshops, such as cabinetmakers and varnishers.
The sofa is the collection’s centerpiece, generously shaped with clear Art Deco flair. The figured-sycamore base with its delicate ivory-colored coat is also found on other pieces of the ensemble. The wood is paired with precious upholstery fabric created especially for this Rinck collection and woven in France by one of our partners. The textile, inspired by the tweed of women’s suits, is in shades of green that coordinate perfectly with the collection’s accent cushions. The sofa is crafted in our workshops in Charleville-Mézières.
Across from the sofa is an armchair, with the same aesthetics and finish, to be used with the sofa or as a stand-alone piece amidst eclectic décor. We also designed a carpet with colors echoing those of the sofa’s fabric, the crisscrossing lines creating contrast of texture and relief. The abstract motif takes inspiration from the imaginary lines of a divine Mount Olympus. The carpet is made entirely by hand, in a blend of wool and bamboo.
To complete this seating area, we created a small end table inspired by Greek columns, entirely in lacquer, for a contemporary, pop-style nod to antiquity. To serve as coffee table, there is a set of three or more modules to arrange as you wish, with brushed-brass bases and smoked-glass tops. These finishes play with the light, having been developed in our workshops in parallel with the collection to further accentuate the latter’s creative identity.
Next are several key furnishings born of precise and meticulous cabinetwork. The first is a games table with a reversible top, one side featuring a chessboard, the other a surface made just for cards. The chairs are a variation on those presented in 2020 for our Félicité collection, but crafted of figured sycamore, like the table. Their oval backs bear a portrait of the goddess Hebe in embossed velvet. In a nod to our history, each corner of the table has a small retractable system, patented by Rinck in the 1950s, that reveals an ashtray and a glass holder at the touch of a finger.
The last piece of the collection is one of the most imposing: The liquor cabinet adds a powerful presence, with its gouged coral base and precious figured-sycamore box. Inside, trays and drawers let you store glasses and bottles, or even serve on site.
And the newest feature of this collection: a custom-designed set of accessories to complement the furniture. These will provide an opportunity to return to this blog in the near future with a third article about the Hébé collection.
© Gaspard Hermach/ RINCK