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Royal Talens celebrates the Year of Rembrandt

2019 is the year of Rembrandt. He died exactly 350 years ago and is now remembered as the greatest master of the Golden Age. There are many initiatives to mark the Year of Rembrandt. For Royal Talens, 2019 is extra special: 120 years ago they introduced the Rembrandt painters' brand. So it's a double anniversary. To celebrate this, Royal Talens, in collaboration with the Rijksmuseum, has launched a unique limited-edition painter's box that is jointly dedicated to the artist and the Rembrandt paint brand.

 

Everything about the box is special

Even at first glance, the box is quite impressive. But when you take a closer look and understand the meaning of all the unique elements and details, you’ll agree with us that this box is truly a collector's item. Only 120 copies were produced, most of which were sold within a day.

The icing on the cake

"Everything has a meaning. In the box, you’ll find 120 colours, which refers to the anniversary of the Rembrandt paint brand. As well as the fact that only 120 boxes have been produced, all with a unique number. Namely, the years from 1899 to 2019", says Willemijn Brinkman - International Brand Manager at Royal Talens. "The box had to be really special. It was decided, therefore, that the Rembrandt 'R' on top of the box would be made of real gold. This was the icing on the cake!" The box is highly detailed. ‘Something really needs to happen when you open the box’, was part of the brief for designer Bas van den Hurk. And indeed it does!

The video shows how the box works.

The design

The Rembrandt brand from Royal Talens is very traditional, but also very contemporary. Young talented artists from all over the world work with this paint. The dark classic box fits nicely with the traditional aspect of the brand. Yet the sleek design and the bright orange artwork in combination with the golden R makes the whole thing very contemporary.

Sold out in a day and a half

Willemijn: "We thought it was all very exciting. We hadn't done anything like this before, with a price tag of € 3,500, they are pretty expensive boxes. The first box was quickly sold by one of our sales people to a customer in Asia. "This customer bought the box based on its special story, the design and their trusted association. The orders just kept flying in after that. All the boxes were sold out within a day and a half! What's more bizarre, the box hadn't even been made at that point." The box was officially launched at the Frankfurt trade fair in January, for which, one box was made.

Wonderful collaboration

"Krepel was the perfect match for this unique box. They contributed some great ideas and were very flexible. They never said anything was impossible, and fully lived up to that promise. A small compartment was milled out for each and every tube of paint. The 'R' on the front of the drawers were also carefully milled out, one by one. It all looks so pristine. The colour of the circle came out exactly the same as in the design. I was very anxious to see how that would turn out. Thankfully, it turned out to be just as beautiful and impressive as we had hoped," says Willemijn.