Manufacturer · Belgium · Kortrijk
De Coene
De Coene – Kortrijk-based Kunstwerkstede Josepha de Coene, Belgium’s largest applied arts workshop and leading Art Deco furniture maker, closed in 1977.
About the manufacturer
- Country
- Belgium
- Location
- Kortrijk
The company’s founder, Joseph de Coene, was born in Kortrijk in 1875. After his father’s death, he left school at the age of thirteen and worked as an upholsterer in the family workshop. He studied in Brussels and attended lectures by Henry van de Velde. After returning to Kortrijk, he decided to transform the family business into an enterprise providing complete interior design services. At the end of 1905, he purchased around half a hectare of land on Pottelberg and built his own workshops there.
Kunstwerkstede De Coene was Belgium’s largest applied arts workshop and shaped furniture and interiors for over eighty years. The company’s principle was to make everything in-house: alongside the cabinetmaking and upholstery workshops, there were marble cutting, blacksmithing, a copper and bronze foundry, metal turning, weaving, batik, stained glass, mirror sanding and a printing works. The company produced furniture and radio and television casings, fitted out the interiors of trains and ships, and during the interwar period became Belgium’s largest manufacturer of Art Deco furniture. It also used plywood and Bakelite.
Wars, bombings and fires repeatedly seriously hampered its development. In 1958, De Coene presented its work at the World Expo in Brussels, and in 1967–1968 it completed the interior design of the marriage hall at the Merksem district town hall, based on a design by Jan van Puyvelde. In 1977, the company was finally closed and liquidated. In 1998, former employees established the Stichting De Coene foundation, and Broelmuseum in Kortrijk dedicated an exhibition entitled “Kortrijkse Kunstwerkstede” to the company.
