Leafing through the guide to the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes – the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts – is a very pleasant journey indeed, one that takes you through space and time.
Armoires and cupboards, tables and chairs, sofas and beds : Of all the furniture handed down to us by history, the piece that is surely the most powerfully linked to the evolution of society is the desk. The reasons for this are clear when we recall this object’s primary purpose : writing.
In 2022, Rinck turns 181. Nearly two centuries of history that have seen an ever-increasing number of projects. It goes without saying that the company has designed and produced an incalculable number of desks during this time. Let’s look at just of few of them, those that are perhaps the most emblematic.
In the mid-18th century, after several decades of the ornamental decadence of the rocaille style, a great many in the aristocracy andgrande bourgeoisie(upper class or gentry) sought greater simplicity in their décors. The Louis XVI style was poised to appear, two decades before the reign of the same name, heralded by the Transition style, which, as the name suggests, marked the shift from one to the other.
If you follow us on any social network, or if you have already read any coverage of Rinck, or if you had the opportunity to read the special issue ofConnaissance des Artsmagazine that featured our company, you are sure to have noticed at least one thing: Rinck calls itself an “Ensemblier Décorateur.”
It was a requisite room in the mansions and elegant dwellings of yesteryear, now reminiscent of a bygone era of club chairs, smoking jackets, and sparkling social lives : the smoking room.
At the dawn of the French Revolution, the chinoiseries décor trend, already quite battered by the neoclassicism of the Louis XVI style, was on the verge of vanishing completely with the last glimmers of lavish 18th-century pomp. Chinese-style ornamentation was the hallmark of a bygone era, a period of splendor and nonchalance come to be seen as decadent, with chinoiseries hereafter considered vulgar, ostentatious, and passé. Fashions now called for an imitation of Greek and Roman antiquity, viewed as the epitome of republican virtue. The Directoire style advocated simplicity and sobriety.
In 1368, while the Hundred Years’ War was still raging in France, five thousand miles away, China’s new Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang had ousted the Mongols from power and established the Ming dynasty. Galvanized by the end of foreign dynastic domination, the Middle Empire closed its borders to the rest of the world, with very few exceptions. Seventy years earlier, in 1298, the story of a Venetian merchant in the court of Kublai Khan had sparked tremendous interest in Europe.
