Simon Rijnbende was born on March 28th,
1777. At the age of 9 Simon came along with his father, on a ship called "De Oranje
Zaal", on which his father (Jan Rijnbende) was captain. In
1786 a very adventurous journey started, inlcuding fights with sea-robbers in the Indian
Archipel. After many journeys, this period ended about three years later. Probably
stimulated by the rising business in Moutwine-industry, he ended this adventurous
sea-man's life and started to learn the principles of distillery. At the age of 16
he founded his own distillery, located at "Het Groeneweegje" in Schiedam, for
which he had to pay ƒ18.000,-. It then was 1793. Because Rijnbende became very active
in trade, Simon Rijnbende founded in 1797 "Rijnbende & Comp." together with
his business partner Pieter de Graaff. This partnership was pure for the
commercial side of the company; Simon Rijnbende kept the distillery to himself. In 1801
this partnership was enlarged when Cornelis Adrianus van Bol'es, his
brother-in-law, and P.Dijkmans joined them. The first years were very
profitable, but later on there were great losses due to a decline in the genever-industry.
In 1834 the firm "Simon Rijnbende en Zonen" was founded in order to continue
Simon Rijnbende's distillery.
Simon Rijnbende and his sons Albertus
Gerard Rijnbende and Margarethus
Rijnbende participated in this firm. On December 21st, 1843 Albertus Gerard died.
Margarethus (on the picture above) than did most of the running, because Simon Rijnbende
did not have so much time because of all his other functions. November 14th, 1853 Simon
Rijnbende died. According to a contract, Simon's unmarried daughters Anna
Petronella and Maria Wilhelmina also participated in this firm.
Because of the death of Simon Rijnbende, the firm "Rijnbende & Comp." was
ended. The firm "Rijnbende & De Graaff" was still going on. Pieter de Graaff
had already died in 1842, but was followed by his son Jan de Graaff. When
Jan died in 1876, the partnership "Rijnbende & Comp."
was ended. Margarethus Rijnbende than continued the firm by his own name. On April 1st
,1885 Margarethus died at the age of almost 72, it was a few months after his 50th
anniversary as partner of this firm. Margarethus's last wish was that his cousin Simon Adrianus Maas would be allowed to continue the
firm for one year at the expense of the heirs, and after that year at his own expense.
S.A. Maas was a son of Elizabeth M.C. Rijnbende and Dr. Adrianus
Maas. He had been working in his uncle's firm since 1880. Simon Adrianus Maas
died in 1898. Until 1922 Simon's son Simon Adrianus Maas, had been
working for the firm. After that year, no member of the family has been working for
the Rynbende firm. S.A. Maas sold the Rynbende firm in 1922 to the K.N.S.G.F.
(Koninklijke Nederlandse Spiritus & Gist Fabrieken) in Delft. Mr. N.F.
van Moorsel became director of the Rynbende company (1922-1948).
In 1948 mr. A.J. Breve becomes director of
the Rynbende company. Breve started working for Rynbende on november 1st 1924 as
"Chef de Bureau". In 1929 he became a proxyholder ("procuratiehouder")
and in 1943 he became deputy director ("onder-directeur"). After having worked
for 38 years for the Rynbende company, Breve resigned in 1963 due to health problems.
Notice that most of the collectibles which are on my website, issued between the 30s and
60s have been produced while A.J. Breve was working at Rynbendes.
Below a photo of all Rynbende employees taken in 1948, at the 25th jubilee of Job Kramer
Freher. On the right on the bottom row, we see A.J. Breve and his wife.
Front row, left to right:
Dora Kramer Freher (youngest daughter), Henk Pappe (son in law, married to Truus), Truus
Pappe (eldest daughter), Job Kramer Freher, Gon Kramer Freher (wife), Mr. A. Breve
(director), Mrs. Breve (wife)
Second row, left ro right:
Petra Strookman (office), Bep Sierat (office), <unkown>, Corrie, <unknown>,
Mr. van Kemenade (office, causin of mr. Breve), <unknown>, <unknown>, Truus
Marbus, Henk Rolloos, <unknown> (receptionist), Louis Meulstee (chef liquor
distiller), Cees Timmer (office)
Third row, left to right:
Willem van der Toorn (packing), Jo ter Brugge (bottle department), Piet van der Wel
(chauffeur), <unknown>, Bram Strookman (office, brother of Petra in 2nd row),
Klapdoor (youngest servant), <unknown>, <unknown>, Piet van Bezooyen
(bookkeeper), Henk Kersemeijer (night-security), Ilmer, <unknown>, van der Hoeven
(bookkeeper)
Top left:
<unknown>, Ilmer, Wim Ilmer, <unknown>, Lau van Ravens (chauffeur),
<unknown>, Jo Ilmer (rinse department)
Theo Janssen (office)
Top middle:
Elkenbout (office), Jan Stolk (rinse- and packing department), <unknown>, Piet
Immerzeel
Note: Special thanks to Louis Meulstee who was able to
supply the above mentioned names.
Cherry liqueur, Creme de menthe, Apicot liqueur and
lots of boxes ready to ship to Briones & Co. Inc. New York. Briones was a large (if
not the largest) importer in the U.S.A.
In 1970 the K.N.S.G.F. merged (for the distillery part) with
the Z.N.S.F. (Zuid Nederlandse Spiritus Fabrieken) and founded the H.V.D.(Henkes
Verenigde Distilleerderijen). Henkes had a brand new building built in 1966 in Hendrik Ido
Ambacht. In 1970 the production part could start. A little later Henkes merged with
Rynbende (in to the HVD?) I was told that mr. van der Poel was the director at the
Rynbende firm when they moved to Hendrik Ido Ambacht.
On the right:
"Famous and wanted brands are going to cooperate. In order to serve you better and
faster, the following brands are going to work together as one strong combination. It's
nice and easy that you now can order all in just one order. It's also very profitable for
you can get very interesting discounts on combination orders.
nv distilleerderij 1e klasse v/h SIMON RYNBENDE & ZN.
I managed to obtain the original name plate which was hanging
on the outside of the Rynbende Distillery. This item dates before the merge with Henkes,
so it would have been there untill the begin 70's? You can hardly read the text on
it, but again, it's an oldie....
nv distilleerderij 1e klasse v/h
SIMON RYNBENDE & ZONEN
ANNO 1793
kad. sectie A no.
1574?- 1189 - 1461 - 1016
1463 - 1628 - 1661 1697 - 1680
Rynbende nowadays
In the 80's, Rynbende liquor had not been for sale
anymore for a long time, Bols issued a last set of liquors with the name Rynbende on them.
Issued in 80's by BOLS.
Than, for almost 15 years we thought that the Rynbende brand had disappeared for good.
You can imagine that I was very very much surprised when (in 1998) a friend of my told me
he had seen Rynbende liquor bottles for sale on his holiday in the north on Holland. The
next morning, I immediately phoned my father and brother, who both wanted (just like I
did) 2 bottles of each; one for consumption and one for the collection. We thought this
liquor store still had some bottles of the ones Bols issued in the 80's. So, I went to
this holiday location, in order to find the liquor store who sold these bottles. It
appeared that the name Rynbende had now been taken over by a company called Mitra.
And so, I found a bottle of Jonge Jenever, and another one with Oude Jenever, and another
one, and another, and another... These a the flavors that they produce nowadays:
Friesche Beerenburg
Citroen Brandewijn
Kersen Brandewijn
Inmaak Brandewijn
Jonge Jenever
Oude Jenever
Citroen Jenever
Dubbele Graanjenever
Bessenjenever
Pina Colada
Advokaat
Issued in 1998 by MITRA.
Right, 10 different flavors. Two of each for me, two of each for my father, two of each
for my brother... oops... that will be 60 bottles! Have you ever bought sixty liters of
liquor in one day? Well, neither did I. I just bought 30 of them.
Where do I fit in?
As you can see in the table below, I'm not directly related to the Simon
Rijnbende who started the distillery, but I am related to a brother of his grandfather.
