Mr. Trinh Huu Ngoc
Today, the historic table where Uncle Ho drafted the Declaration, the document cabinet, the typewriter, the dining table, the conference table, the conference room file cabinet... in the house at 48 Hang Ngang have all become national historical relics and their author has also recorded his name in an important historical milestone of the country.
Contributing to the shape of this "historical milestone" is the great contribution of Mr. Trinh Huu Ngoc and his wife. However, for nearly a century, it has remained a silent contribution that few people know about.
The artist who made the table and chairs where Uncle Ho sat to draft the Declaration of Independence in that house was also the one who contributed wood and workers to build the Independence Platform on September 2, 1945, Indochina fine arts artist Trinh Huu Ngoc (1912 - 1997).
He was the owner of the very famous MÉMO woodworking workshop in Hanoi before 1954, considered the "founder of the interior design school in Vietnam" according to architect Tran Thanh Binh.
The table and chairs where President Ho Chi Minh sat to write the Declaration of Independence at 48 Hang Ngang Street - Photo: GDCC
From the table and chairs Uncle Ho wrote the declaration
Visiting the historical site of House 48 Hang Ngang Street where Uncle Ho wrote the Declaration of Independence, you will see many exquisite wooden furniture and artifacts that Uncle Ho used in the early days when he returned to Hanoi from the Viet Bac resistance base to prepare for the great opportunity of the nation: the day of declaring independence.
There is a small, simple round table with a sign that reads: The historical table where President Ho Chi Minh drafted the Declaration of Independence. Next to it is a square table that Uncle Ho used as a typewriter, a filing cabinet, and his dining table.
When painter Trinh Huu Ngoc created these interiors, he certainly did not think they would become national relics, associated with a great historical event of the nation.
But history chose him. Of course, history chose the worthy one. In the house left by his father in poetry and music on Quan Thanh Street, Hanoi - painter and translator Trinh Lu recalls his special father.
Mr. Trinh Huu Ngoc studied Indochina Fine Arts in the 9th course with a scholarship for excellent students, and soon affirmed his talent through awards in painting and interior design at student exhibitions.
President Ho Chi Minh's document cabinet at 48 Hang Ngang - Photo: GĐCC
After graduating, he opened an interior design workshop "to build a lifestyle" in line with the social reform spirit of the Boy Scouts group he joined in 1939 with friends such as Hoang Dao Thuy, Ton That Tung, Tran Duy Hung, Nguyen Huy Tuong...
As the first to pioneer the field of interior design in Hanoi, MÉMO workshop with its wooden furniture production line machinery imported from France and the owner's creativity, refined and modern aesthetics, soon conquered the middle class in Hanoi, including the big capitalists.
The capitalist couple Trinh Van Bo is one of the close customers of the MÉMO factory.
Mr. Trinh Lu said that in 1945, Mr. Trinh Van Bo's family renovated the house at 48 Hang Ngang that they had just bought.
They asked Mr. Trinh Huu Ngoc to design all the wooden furniture in the house, from the conference table, dining table, desk, document cabinet and a small table with a single chair reserved for the boss to sit and rest and read books and newspapers.
All are unique. Back then, MÉMO made furniture for anyone, and the design was unique. Later, they expanded to mass production.
When Uncle Ho returned to Hanoi from the war zone in August 1945, he chose the house of the bourgeois couple who had "raised" the Viet Minh for many years to live and hold meetings. The furniture in the MÉMO house was all for Uncle Ho's use, including the owner's own table and chairs.
The chair that comes with the table has a very modern design, allowing users to lean back and rest for a while. President Ho Chi Minh loved this table and chair set, and chose it to sit and write the Declaration of Independence with its bold, immortal statements, opening a new era for the Vietnamese people.
At that moment, he asked Mr. Trinh Van Bo about the table and chairs and said that the new government really needed talented people like Trinh Huu Ngoc.
The stage where Uncle Ho read the Declaration of Independence on September 2, 1945 - Photo: TTX
President Ho Chi Minh steps down from the Independence Hall on September 2, 1945 - Photo: NGUYEN BA KHOAN
Mr. Trinh Huu Ngoc on a chair model that he likes the most - Photo: GĐCC
A family in Ho Chi Minh City still uses wooden furniture from MÉMO - Photo: GDCC
To the Independence Monument
But the contribution of Mr. Trinh Huu Ngoc and MÉMO in
national history
not only that. Right after the Declaration of Independence was the Independence Ceremony on September 2, 1945 at Ba Dinh flower garden.
The story of the construction of the stage was recorded by writer Phung Quan according to the story of Mr. Nguyen Huu Dang printed in the book Three Minutes of Truth. On August 28 at the Bac Bo Palace (now the Government Guest House), Mr. Nguyen Huu Dang was called to meet Uncle Ho to receive an urgent task, to be the head of the organization committee of the Independence Day.
With only four days to complete the mountain of work while having nothing in hand, Mr. Nguyen Huu Dang completed the work with the support of many people, including the painter Trinh Huu Ngoc and his wife.
At that time, Mr. Ngo Huy Quynh was an architect assigned to build the stage in 48 hours. Building the stage required wood and silk for wrapping. The people of Hang Dao street, including Indian merchants, enthusiastically supported silk, but wood was more difficult.
Mr. Trinh Lu said that Mr. Ngo Huy Quynh and Mr. Nguyen Huu Dang immediately remembered their friend who was in the same Scouting activity as the owner of the MÉMO wood workshop on Hang Bong Tho Nhuom street.
Mr. Dang was familiar with painter Nguyen Thi Khang, the second wife of Mr. Trinh Huu Ngoc, before the revolution when they both participated in the Tien Duc Enlightenment Association led by Mr. Nguyen Van To, often teaching popular education to people living outside the Red River dike in 1943 - 1944.
Mr. Ngo Huy Quynh was a classmate of Mr. Trinh Huu Ngoc at the Indochina Fine Arts School. Mr. Ngoc studied painting in the 9th class, while Mr. Quynh studied architecture in the 10th class.
Hearing his friends' suggestion, Mr. Ngoc immediately said that he could take as much wood as he had in the warehouse and that he would send workers from the MÉMO workshop to help build the stage. The Independence Stage was completed on schedule early in the morning of September 2, 1945, in preparation for the important moment that afternoon.
Writer Phung Quan once commented that the Independence Monument was built in 48 hours and then dismantled, but "its stature, shape and overall architecture have been forever engraved in the memory of the entire nation.
The Independence Palace is the milestone between the long night of a hundred years of slavery and the dawn of independence and freedom of the nation. The fate of the whole nation changed" since then.
Mr. Trinh Lu once asked his father: "Why does no one remember our family's efforts and money to build the Independence Monument?" and he received a very calm answer from his father: "I don't even remember, let alone ask anyone to remember.
In life, it's comfortable to not know what the right hand is doing and the left hand is not doing anything. After doing a little bit, you'll remember. Why bother telling stories?
Although not many people remember Trinh Huu Ngoc's contribution of wood and workers to build the Independence Platform, those who received his contribution to build the platform remember it very much and all find ways to repay him.
Mr. Trinh Lu said that during his lifetime, when Mr. Nguyen Huu Dang lived in his hometown of Thai Binh, every time he went to Hanoi to visit friends, he would go to the "duck tent" in Quang An village, among the vast trees and water of West Lake owned by Mr. Trinh Huu Ngoc, to sleep with his friends.
Mr. Ngo Huy Quynh quietly helped Mr. Trinh Huu Ngoc find a job to make a living during a period of historical change that a large "bourgeois" family like Trinh Huu Ngoc's could not easily overcome.
President Ho Chi Minh's dining table at 48 Hang Ngang - Photo: GĐCC
Interior of Uncle Ho's plane and paintings hanging in the Presidential Palace
After the MÉMO wood workshop was sold to the State at a price to clear the owner's bank debt, Mr. Ngoc worked in several agencies such as the General Department of Forestry, the Ministry of Internal Trade, taught woodworking design at the newly established School of Industrial Fine Arts... but then quit.
He also withdrew from the Fine Arts Association. His family's Capital Painting Class had to close because of the regulation prohibiting private schools. He became a freelance artist. Yet he still had many orders to make interiors for government agencies and was
Office of the President
buy painting
This is thanks to his design and painting talents, but also to the kindness of close friends such as architect Ngo Huy Quynh, doctor Tran Duy Hung, doctor Nhu The Bao, Mr. Vu Dinh Huynh...
You helped Mr. Trinh Huu Ngoc have a job to support his family when he did not belong to any agency or organization.
In 1962, Mr. Trinh Huu Ngoc received a contract from the Ministry of Architecture to design wooden interiors for the entire residential area and office of the Government of the Kingdom of Laos in Khang Khay, funded by the Government of Vietnam.
Mr. Ngoc got his first interior design contract after 1954 thanks to his old friend who built the Independence Monument, architect Ngo Huy Quynh, who was then the head of the expert team helping the Lao government design the Khang Khay planning (from 1961 - 1963).
Mr. Trinh Huu Ngoc was also entrusted with the interior design of the waiting and reception area of Gia Lam airport, the interior design for President Ho Chi Minh's AN24 plane and the Prime Minister's office.
It was not only thanks to Mr. Quynh's help but also other friends at that time such as Dr. Nhu The Bao and Mr. Vu Dinh Huynh.
But above all, President Ho Chi Minh knew Mr. Ngoc's talent for a long time. Therefore, in addition to the contracts for interior design for state agencies, from 1962 until his death in 1969, the Presidential Palace every year chose to buy landscape paintings by Mr. Trinh Huu Ngoc as gifts for diplomatic guests.
Mr. Trinh Lu still remembers that every time Tet was near, the Presidential Palace sent people to Mr. Trinh Huu Ngoc's house to buy paintings. Mr. Sukarno - the president of Indonesia at that time, was one of the distinguished guests who received paintings by President Ho Chi Minh from Trinh Huu Ngoc, and was very pleased.
The famous art critic Thai Ba Van saw that "Trinh Huu Ngoc's paintings are a secret virtue that does not change throughout the artist's life". Trinh Huu Ngoc's friends also clearly saw that virtue in him.
The rosewood chair of MÉMO workshop remains beautiful and durable after many years - Photo: GDCC
Mr. Vu Dinh Huynh - at that time the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' protocol department, and former personal secretary of Uncle Ho - told painter Trinh Huu Ngoc that Mr. Sukarno told President Ho Chi Minh: Trinh Huu Ngoc is the Monet (Claude Monet - famous French painter, one of the founders of the Impressionist school) of Vietnam.
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