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.
Ornament was a divisive subject in the 20th century, rejected by the modern movement as a sign of decadence, while considered by traditionalists to be a lingua franca uniting the realms of architecture and decoration. This debate has since been pushed aside by architectural post-modernism and contemporary – and deliberately eclectic – interior decoration. Let us look back upon a notion that is as old as humanity itself.
Of all the furniture invented by humankind, the chair is undoubtedly the piece that best reflects the era it inhabits. In the 18th century, it was a symbol of power in the form of aristocratic armchairs that could be taken on one’s travels or moved from room to room. In the 19th century, it was bourgeois, mushrooming in family dining rooms, only to become an ever-changing designer object a century later. The chair has long kept pace with and reflected changing lifestyles, representing, in its appearance, the twists and turns of its time.
The finest hotels of Paris, the embodiment of French luxury since the 19th century, symbolize both contemporary sophistication and rare refinement. They have played host to the world’s most celebrated travelers. Rinck’s archives hold precious records of projects done for some of the greatest names in French hospitality.
Beyond the fortifications of medieval Paris, one of the world’s most elegant urban districts was about to emerge from a swampy tract of land. The history of the Faubourg Saint-Honoré is, in and of itself, a synopsis of the birth and establishment of a lifestyle at once refined and rational, a stylish art de vivre to which greater Paris adheres to this day.
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.
In 2024, Rinck turned 183. 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.
