Timeless Echoes of Dutch Winters
Hendrik's Collection
Client
Tjep. collection
Design team
Frank Tjepkema, Agustina Cociffi
Production
Tjep.
A Nostalgic Nod to Hendrik Avercamp's Frozen Scenes
Envision furniture that captures the crisp serenity of a 17th-century Dutch winter—a collection of wooden pieces evoking ice skaters gliding across frozen canals, where form meets memory in elegant simplicity. Hendrik Collection, designed by Tjep. and launched in 2013 at Milan Design Week's Ventura Lambrate, draws inspiration from the artist Hendrik Avercamp, whose intricate paintings of wintry landscapes infuse each chair and table with quiet, enduring grace.
Handcrafted Ash and Oak: Where Heritage Meets Harmony
Frank Tjepkema crafted this range from solid ash or oak, hand-finished to perfection, blending nostalgic reflection with modern functionality. Chairs with subtly curved legs mimic the sweep of skates on ice, while tables offer clean lines that ground spaces in subtle storytelling. "Countering globalised uniformity, we design for those who seek to rediscover individualism," Tjepkema notes, creating pieces that stand as both functional anchors and artistic whispers of Dutch yesteryear.
A Counterpoint to Uniformity in Tjep.'s Oeuvre
Presented alongside Tjep.'s Il Treno booth and DNA-custom furniture at Plusdesign Gallery, Hendrik Collection embodies the studio's ethos of juxtaposition—old and new, abundance and restraint—much like the layered motifs of Clockwork Love or the pared forms of the Recession Chair. It's a deliberate embrace of craft in an era of excess, inviting homes to hold the chill of history with warmth.
Tjep.'s Wintery Wit in Wooden Form
More than seating or surfaces, Hendrik Collection is Tjep.'s homage to the individual: furniture that skates between past and present, proving timeless design can thaw the ordinary.
Gliding Through Time, One Piece at a Time
Elegant yet evocative, it shows heritage can furnish the future. Explore more of Tjep.'s narrative collections on Tjep.com, where winters inspire wonder.
Visually delicate, yet unyieldingly strong.
The Bronze Age collection showcases meticulously hand-crafted pieces, rooted in traditional techniques that once defined human survival. Each work is a labor-intensive creation, forged from bronze—the material that heralded the dawn of civilization.
“For this project, I sought to counter the technology-driven trends fueled by digital innovations like 3D printing. Bronze, with its inherent value, embodies sustainability: it is either cherished and preserved or melted down and reborn, never discarded. Who knows—some of these pieces might even carry the essence of ancient bronze swords, remelted and reimagined,” says Frank Tjepkema, lead designer and founder of Tjep.
The bronze foundation of this collection evokes stability, strength, and enduring sustainability, as the material can be endlessly recycled. The furniture designs draw on classic forms but are transformed to reflect a modern narrative. The collection boldly engages with contemporary issues, evoking the specter of human-induced crises—such as climate change or nuclear fallout—positioning these pieces as both timeless and urgently relevant.
The result is a series of sculptural works that marry a pure, elegant aesthetic with robust physicality. Do these pieces bear the scars of great calamity, or do they stand as testaments to the enduring power of tradition, like an ancient bronze sword?