The Henokiens, travelling through 13 centuries through Time.

Move your mouse over the pictures and click to discover the Henokiens through a selection of historical periods.

717 - Garyo Hoshi establishes what will later become the oldest traditional inn in the world: the "Ryokan Hoshi".

At the same time :

- In the East, Arab civilisation and its very new religion (Islam) is expanding rapidly.

- In 718, the Saracens take control of Spain. The kingdom of the Visigoths is wiped off the map.
It won’t be until the year 732 in Poitiers that Charles Martel will contain the Saracen invasion.

Jacobello Barovier is mentioned for the first time in 1295.

At the same time :

- The beginning of the construction of the first Christian church in Beijing (Peking) and of the Cathedral of Florence.


1369 - Date of the hand-written registration, in the State Archives of Florence, of the trademark, undoubtedly made by Jacopus Turini.

At the same time :

- Arrival of the game of cards, coming from the East to Europe by Florence.

- Creation of the first modern perfume, with hints of bergamot and jasmin, "water of Hungary" is made for Queen Elizabeth of Hungary.


1446 - Pierre V Sarret is cultivating fields on the royal property of Coussergues.

The same year :

- The Portuguese navigator, Denis Dias, reaches the Cape Verde Islands and discovers the mouth of the Senegal River.


1450 - Angelo Barovier (1405-1460), invents and produces Venetian crystal.

At the same time :

- Nicolas of Cusa invents the concave lens to treat eye sight defects.

- Gutenberg improves printing by the use of movable type and prints a schoolbook on his printing presses. This is the beginning of modern typography.

1470 - It was French King Louis XI who, by the Decree of Amboise in 1470, decided to establish a silk fabric factory in Tours, precursor of the Jean Roze company.

The same year :

- The first printing works is set up in Paris, in the Sorbonne.

- The Florentine traveller, Beneditto Dei, visits Tombouctou.


1500 - At that time, Ludovico Sforza, know as il Moro, granted to the Corbetta Family, through a long lease, access to a huge territory at Garbagnate Monastero, for the development of silk culture activity. (Marioboselli).

At the same time, the Amarelli began the first harvest and sales of liquorice root on their estates.

The same year :

- The Polish astronomer Nicolas Copernicus observes an eclipse in Rome.

- Amerigo Vespucci, whose name will later on be given to the continent, begins exploring the South American coast.

- Birth of Benvenuto Cellini, Florentine goldsmith and sculptor.

- The Italian artist Michelangelo sculpts the Pietà of Saint-Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

1510 - The ancient Romans celebrated births and weddings with small sweets, forerunners of "Confetti" (Mario Pelino), but they were made with honey until the Renaissance when sugarcane was introduced in Europe.

The same year :

- Peter Henlein invents the pocket watch.

- Raphaël completes his most sublime work: the paintings of the Vatican Chambers.


1526 - The company name Beretta is first mentioned in 1526, in the small northern italian village of Gardone Val Trompia near Brescia, where it is still established.

The same year :

- The Portuguese navigator Menezes discovers New-Guinea.

- The German painter and engraver Albrecht Dürer paints "The Four Apostles".

1568 - On the 15th of July, 1568, Joachim Poschinger acquired the property of Zwieselau, in Frauenau, on which a glass factory already stood.

At the same time :

- Pieter Bruegel the Elder paints "the Harvesters".

1613 - In the beginning, a royal privilege. In 1613, a young chimney sweep who had recently moved to Paris, discovered a plot against King Louis XIII. When Marie de Medicis was warned of the conspiracy, she rewarded Jean-Baptiste Mellerio and the Lombard community of Paris by granting them the privilege of "peddling cut crystal, hardware and other small goods" throughout the realm.

The same year :

- From 1605 to 1615 Cervantes publishes "Don Quixote".

- Samuel de Champlain publishes the account of his journeys through Canada.


1615 - On the 1st of July, a paper factory is created by Angelo da Fano (Cartiera Mantovana) in Maglio de Goito, ten kilometers from Mantua in northern Italy.

The same year :

- Although it had been introduced in Spain by Cortez in 1527, France had to wait until the year 1615 and the marriage of Louis XIII with Anne of Austria, for the latter to launch the fad of chocolate in France.


1632 - The Van Eeghen Group of Companies was set up in 1632, when wool and cloth merchant Christiaen van Eeghen opened a shop in the Netherlands.

The same year :

- Rembrandt paints the Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Tulp.

- Birth of the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer.

- The "Taj Mahal" is built by the Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife, the Queen "Mumtaz Mahal".


1637 - Founding of the Gekkeikan company by Rokurouemon Okura, first of the name.

The same year :

- Publication of the "Discourse on Method" by Rene Descartes.

- 1635 : The French Academy is founded in Paris by Richelieu.


1639 - The first Hugels whose trace can be found, lived in Dannemarie, to the south west of Mulhouse. Their descendant, Hans-Ulrich, left his village as the Thirty Years War ravaged the countryside.
In 1639, he decided to settle in Riquewihr, a small, fortified town nestled in a hollow, surrounded by vineyards and forests.

The same year :

- Birth of the French dramatic poet Jean Racine.

- 1638 : Birth of dom Pierre Perignon, French Benedictine monk born in Sainte-Menehould. He is said to have applied to champagne the manufacturing process of sparkling wines.

1664 - Joan Swarte, the name was later changed to "Schwarze" - was a leading figure in the city of Westkirchen near Muenster, in Wesphalia. Both a distiller and farmer, he was also a tax collector for the Elector of Wesphalia and, as such, belonged to one of the old, bourgeois families that had already been contributing to the prosperity of Germany for many centuries.

The same year :

- Founding of the French East Indies Company by Colbert.

- Invention of the anemometer by the English mathematician and astronomer Robert Hooke.

1665 : The English scientist Isaac Newton discovers the principle of gravitation and of universal attraction.


1669 - The history of OKAYA began in 1669, when Sosuke Okaya established a hardware dealership in Nagoya, Japan. Since then, and throughout its 335 years of history, OKAYA has evolved into a global trading company.

The same year :

- Death of Rembrandt, Dutch painter and engraver.

- Spain acknowledges the independance of Portugal by the treaty of Libon.

- Hennig Brand discovers the phosphore.


1679 - Nicolas VIELLARD was the first ironmaster of the Viellard family. He managed the foundries of Lepuix-Gy in the mines of Giromagny.

The same year :

- The French explorer Robert Cavelier de la Salle explores the area of the Canadian Great Lakes.

- 1678 : Birth of Antonio Vivaldi, Italian violinist and composer, in Venice.


1685 - Under the reign of Louis XIV, Diego GRADIS, descendant of an old Portuguese family settled in Bordeaux in the 16th century, founded a trading company specialised in cloth.

The same year :

- Louis XIV revokes the edict of Nantes, signed by Henri IV in 1598.

- Birth of Johann Sebastian Bach, German musician, in Eisenach.


1690 - As early as 1690, Andre Delamare, cartwright, was mentioned in local archives.

The same year :

- Denis Papin invents the first steam boat.


1700 - William Clark & Sons began trading in 1700 when John Clark bought land in Upperlands, in the heart of Ulster, and began to buy linen locally from handloom weavers which he exported to America.

The same year :

- Well-known German flute maker, Johann Christoph Denner, invents the clarinet.

- Bunraku is the puppet theatre of Japan. It developed in Osaka at the beginning of the 1700’s and became, with Nô, Kyôgen and Kabuki, one of the most significant forms of stage art of ancient Japan.

1707 - AKAFUKU In 1707, Jiheê Hamada established a confectionery on the banks of the Isuzu River which runs through the grounds of the Inner Shrine of Ise.

1711 - David GRADIS decides to abandon trading in cloth and to specialise in trade with the colonies. He buys his first vessel in England: the "TIGER".

At the same time :

- 1707 : The kingdoms of England and Scotland are plain in the “United Kingdom of Great Britain” by the queen Anne Stuart.

- 1710 : Porcelain of Saxony is created by Johann F. Böttger which marked the invention of porcelain in Europe.

- 1715 : Fahrenheit invents, in Germany, the mercury thermometer.


1731 - Fortunato and Paolo Fortunato Amarelli create a "concio", among the first organisations of pre-industrial character. The Amarelli company was thus born.

The same year :

- The sextant is invented at the same time, in England and America, by the English mathematician John Hadley (1682-1744) and by the American inventor, Thomas Godfrey (1704-1749).


1733 - In 1733, Pietro Francesco Piacenza created the first wool mill in Pollone, a small town nestled at the foot of the Alps, near Biella.

The same year :

- Englishman John Kay invents weaving with a flying shuttle thus improving the speed of the weaving loom.


1745 - It was in the year 1745 that Johann Diederich Neuhaus was deemed worthy of being registered in the "Sprockhövelsches Fabrickenbuch" (Factory Register) as a “Fabrickant” (manufacturer) and thus became a member of a kind of trade cooperative.

The same year, fascinated by the strange art of bell founding, Giuseppe Colbachini began his apprenticeship, before setting up, with his brother Antonio, a workshop to cast bells (Fonderia Colbachini).

At the same time :


- 1743 : From a voyage in Amazonia, Charles-Marie La Condamine brings back a rubber plant in his luggage, as well as the first description of the quinquina, the tree from which quinine comes.

- 1746 : Germany and the Netherlands discover the condenser.

- 1747 : A German chemist, Andreas Sigismund Marggraf, obtains sugar from the beet, in a solid state.

1757 - In that year the Conte family acquired fame as wool manufacturers. This was due to Antonio Di Giovan Battista, who succeeded in buying and taking over a wool factory from a certain Donadelli; this factory was located at the very site of the Lanificio G.B. Conte today.

At the same time :

- 1751 : First edition of the Encyclopaedia, a collective work (1751-1772) directed by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert.

- 1752 : Invention of the lightning rod by Benjamin Franklin.

- 1756 : Birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer, in Salzburg.


1762 - The history of the MÖLLER Group began in Bielefeld an der Lutter in north-eastern Westphalia.

The same year :

- Catherine II, tsarina of Russia and known as Catherine the Great, ascends to the throne.

- France cedes Louisiana to Spain to counter the British hegemony in the area.


1768 - The Latours settle in the village of Aloxe-Corton, buying up vineyards in this famous growth and gradually establishing a large Domaine.

The same year :

- Founding of the Royal Academy of Arts in London

- James Hargreaves designs the first spinning machine: the "spinning Jenny".

- 1770 : Visiting Abyssinia while searching for the sources of the Nile, James Bruce reaches those of the Blue Nile.


1772 - In 1772, Antoine-Marcel LEMOINE, composer, violinist and music teacher, founded a musical publishing house at 556, rue de l'Echelle-Honoré in Paris.

The same year :

- Yves Joseph de Kerguelen de Tremarec, a sailor and native of Brittany, explores the South Seas and discovers the archipelago which bears his name.

- Founding of the Royal Academy of Belgium.


1779 - The grapperia was born in the shade of Venice, thanks to Bortolo Nardini, during his search for a better place than his native Segonzano in the Trentino Valley, to produce and sell his grappa.

The same year :

- The first bridge ever built in cast iron is inaugurated in England, over the Severn river.

- The Irish "Volunteers" demand of the Ministry of Lord North in London, the end of the restrictions on Irish industry and trade.


1789 - At Ponsas, the twenty-year old François REVOL, and his seventeen year-old brother Joseph, having discovered during a Sunday walk a deposit of kaolin in the hills overhanging the Rhône, founded the first factory for the production of craft pottery.

The same year :

- French revolution.

- George Washington: first President of the United States of America.

- Uranium oxide (UO₂), is discovered by the German, Martin Heinrich Klaproth, by analysing an ore originating from Saxony, the pitchblende.


1792 - The Rubini family from Como, with a long tradition as silk producers, opted to diversify its core activities and bought the steel workshops scattered along the shores of Lake Como as well as the iron mines located just beyond. With these two acquisitions, the Rubinis thus inaugurated a memorable era in the steel sector (Gruppo Falck).

The same year :

- Birth of Gioacchino Antonio Rossini, Italian composer creator in particular of "the Barber of Seville", "William Tell" and a "Stabat Mater".


1796 - Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch & Cie - Henri Hentsch established a silk-trading and commission business on January 11, 1796, before joining forces with Jean Gédéon Lombard on June 19, 1798. The two men described their principal business as "commissions operations", the exchange transactions necessitated by the multiple currencies in use during the period.

1797 - At the end of the 18th century, established in Busto Arsizio, the birthplace of Benigno Crespi, the Crespi, dyeing company became a specialist in the finishing of home-woven fabrics and developed a considerable reputation in the provinces of Milan and Lodi where its production was sold.

At the same time :

- Andre-Jacques Garnerin was the first to succeed in a parachute jump, jumping from a balloon 700 meters above Paris.

1805 - One locates starting in proper name of the activity of Jean-Joseph D’Ieteren, probably in 1805, year of his 20 years, that is to say 6 years after the beginning of its period of training. He occupies himself at his beginnings exclusively of wheelwright and coach-building.

- PICTET & Cie Both under 30, Jacob-Michel-François de Candolle and Jacques-Henry Mallet, ancestors of the Pictet family, took the bold step of signing a “partnership deed” on 23 July 1805.


The same year :

- Invention of the stethoscope by Dr Rene Laennec.

- Birth of Robert Houdin (Jean-Eugene Robert) (1805-1871), clocksmith and magician.

- Battle of Austerlitz.

1816 - Henry Lemoine becomes one of the most famous piano teachers in Paris being the first in France to organise group music lessons with the aim of encouraging his pupils.

The same year :

- First presentation in Rome of Rossini's opera "The Barber of Seville".

- Birth, in Hanover, of Werner von Siemens, who built up one of the largest groups in the modern electrotechnical industry.


1845 - Creation of the name Viellard Migeon et Co.

The same year :

- The great famine spreads all over Ireland. It will result in massive emigration to America which will last until 1848.

- the German composer Richard Wagner composes his opera "Tannhauser".


1848 - The slowdown in activity that followed the Revolution of 1848 provided Jean François Mellerio with the opportunity to seek business elsewhere in Europe.

The same year :

- James Marshall discovers a golden nugget in California that led to the gold rush.

- 1846 : In Iena, Carl Zeiss set up an optical glass and instrument (microscopes) company which will acquire a worldwide reputation.


1850 - The 19th century was a period of deep economic changes. Thus, as the records of designs of the Jean Roze, factory show, it was around 1850 that the Jacquard loom made its appearance in the Tours workshops.

The same year :

- Creation, in the United States, of the American Express Company.

- Company for the protection of the rights of the authors, composers and music publishers, the SACEM was founded in 1850. Reciprocal agreements were concluded with similar foreign companies, which extended its effect to most countries.

1863 - Dr. Karl Möller and his brother jointly found the engineering works "K. and Th. Möller" in 1863. The company’s products cover a wide range of equipment and machinery for all branches of industry.

The same year :

- The first (steam powered) subway is inaugurated in London.

- Birth of Henry Ford who will become one of the major American industrial leaders, and will found in 1902 his first automotive engineering company, the Henry Ford Company, in Dearborn (Michigan), just before the Ford Motor Company, in 1903.

- Founding of the Red Cross, the international organization created by the Genevan Henri Dunant to aid victims of war.


1870 - Coussergues partially escaped from the phylloxera epidemic in 1870, thanks to a dam on the Libron river built upstream from Coussergues by Pierre de Sarret to flood the vineyards.

The same year :

- Founding of the Deutsche Bank AG in Berlin.

- Founding of the Standard Oil Company by John Davison Rockefeller.

- 1869 : inauguration of the Suez Canal.


1872 - José Raventos first introduced the method of Cava wine making. He started its trading two years later, under the name of "Codorniu" which was immediately a success.

The same year :

- With his brother, the German industrialist Wilhelm von Mauser founded a firearms factory in Oberndorf where the famous 7.92 mm rifle model (the mauser, 1884) was produced. For more than 70 years, this weapon, with various modifications, was the rifle that equipped the German infantry as well as that of several other countries.

- Creation of the first natural park in the world: Yellowstone National Park, in the United States.


1883 - Premises at Lanificio G.B. Conte were equipped with electricity, thus making it possible to increase production and improve working conditions.

The same year :

- The greatest volcano eruption of all time, that of Mount Krakatoa in Indonesia, resulted in more than 40 000 victims.

- Publication of the "Adventures of Pinocchio" by Carlo Collodi and of "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson.


1886 - Adding an hydraulic turbine and a thermoelectric unit allowed Cartiera Mantovana to efficiently modernise the paper mill.

The same year :

- Frederic Auguste Bartholdi erected the Statue of Liberty in New York.

- A pharmacist from the state of Georgia in the US, M. Pemberton, invents Coca-Cola.


1890 : The Latours acquired the jewel in the crown of their Domaine, the famous Cuverie and the Château of Corton-Grancey.

The same year :

- In Armainvilliers (Seine-et-Marne, France), on October 9th, the French engineer Clement Ader, after finalising a second version of Eole (his flying machine), managed to take off with his aeroplane for a flight of a bit more than forty meters.

- During the Impressionist period where painters like Degas, Gauguin or Van Gogh distinguished themselves, Paul Cezanne paints the Card Players. Van Gogh will die in the same year.


1898 - January 17th is an historic date for the Colbachini family. Pope Leo XIII granted the company the prestigious title of "Pontifical Foundry".

The same year :

- Birth of Enzo Ferrari who will leave his mark on the history of racing and luxury sports cars.

- A Danish engineer, Valdemar Poulsen, designs a machine allowing the magnetic recording of sound (ancestor of the tape recorder).

1905 - To improve the brand image of his product, Tsunekichi Okura decides to change the brand name to "Gekkeikan", which means "the crown of Laurel". The choice of this symbol of victory and glory clearly demonstrates his ambition to become the premier Japanese sake producer.

The same year :

- Sweden and Norway become two independent countries.

- 1901 : the first Nobel Prizes are awarded.


1906 : Under the management of Giuseppe and Carlo Beretta, the factory settles definitively on the international market and is highly successful in its two branches of activity: military and sport.

The same year :

- Founding of Rolls-Royce Ltd.

- On April 18th, the town of San Francisco, located on the active San Andreas fault, is almost entirely destroyed by an earthquake and by the fire caused by the rupture of the gas mains.


1909 : Friedrich Schwarze designs his company's trade mark: the head of a revelling Westphalian farmer tasting a glass of "Schwarze" spirit.

The same year :

- On July 25th, taking off from Calais on his Blériot XI, Louis Blériot, in a 43 km flight, crosses the English Channel in 32 minutes and lands in Dover.

- On April 6th, the American explorer Robert Edwin Peary first reaches the North Pole.


1914 - GRADIS is commissioned by the French Government to ensure the supply of sugar in France. This warrant will expire in 1920.

The same year :

- On July 28th, World War I breaks out.

- Birth of the French industrialist Marcel Bich, creator of the crystal pen Bic and the disposable razor and lighter.


1930 - Following the worldwide crisis of 1929, Piacenza creates high quality fabrics which are shown to the most renowned fashion designers in Paris and New York.

The same year :

- Discovery of Pluto, the ninth and last planet of the solar system, by the American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh.

- First soccer World Cup in Uruguay.


1932 - The Hugel company had begun very early to export but it was only from 1932 onwards that it was possible to make a concerted effort to prospect overseas markets systematically. London was the most important centre for the international wine trade.

The same year :

- The construction of the Empire State Building is completed. At that time, it was the highest skyscraper of the world.

- Founding of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.


1945 - In 1945, the retreating Germans blew up the bridge and the story comes to a temporary close. The following year saw the rebirth of the bridge as well as of the Nardini grapperia.

The same year :

- On July 16th, the first American atomic bomb is exploded in New Mexico.

- On October 24th, birth of the United Nations.

1952 - In 1952 Neuhaus had the idea of fitting hoists, which had traditionally been operated manually, with a pneumatic motor.
The air hoist was born.

At Crespi, the power looms were replaced by automatic looms and the spinning mills benefited from high level technological equipment.

The same year :

- Elisabeth II becomes Queen of England.

- The American microbiologist Jonas Edward Salk develops the first polio vaccine.


1959 - In April, Mario Boselli enters the family-run company, the Carlo Boselli of Garbagnate Monastero, called today Marioboselli Yarns.

The same year :

- The space probe Explorer 6 sends the first televisual images of the Earth, from space.

- Fidel Castro overthrows the regime of dictator Fulgencio Batista in Cuba.


1960 - Following several years of research, William Clark & Sons creates the Everbond Limited division to market the company’s latest collection of iron-on interlinings.

The same year :

- The American physicist Theodore Maiman invents the laser.

- John Fitzgerald Kennedy becomes President of the United States of America.


1980 - From the original glazed earthenware, Revol has developed its material into a nonporous resistant ware and then into a thick porcelain which is particularly suitable for kitchen use.

The same year :

- Marguerite Yourcenar is the first woman elected to the French Academy.


1981 - Creation of the Henokiens Association.

The same year :

- Creation of the first microcomputer for professional purposes: the IBM-PC.


1993 - VAN EEGHEN INTERNATIONAL invests in the setting up of a reprocessing unit in Ermelo, the Netherlands, to supply the large food processing companies with "made-to-measure" products.

The same year :

- The Nobel Peace Prize is jointly awarded to Nelson Mandela and Frederik de Klerk.

- Czechoslovakia splits up into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

- 1992 : signature of the Maastricht treaty which will come into effect on November 1st, 1993 as the European Union treaty.