Prima Collezione
Prima Collezione
Illy decided that young and promising artists should get a chance in decorating their illy collection cups too. So Simone Meentzen (born 1970 in Dresden, Germany) was asked to design six espresso cups.
There are three different "illy collection" versions. Hard to say what the official collection version should be, but on the illy web site only the 1994 version is listed. Like the Italian Faces cups, it seems that illy did not exactly know how to precede with the collection cups. Maybe that illy had the idea to produce some of the same series for longer times, just with a different year (1993, 1994 and 1995).
There is a previous special signed and numbered "illy collection 1993, slow food" version. In January 1994 a signed and numbered set with the inscription "illy collection 1994" was released and in 1995 there was another signed and numbered version made by Mitterteich instead of Richard Ginori. On the inside of the cups of this version the inscription says "illy collection" and on the bottom it says "illy collection 1995". So the year moved from the inside to the bottom.
The prototypes which you can see on the picture beside show two more designs that never made it
into production, but you might recognize Simone Meentzen's signature on the bottom of the cups.
| artist | Simone Meentzen |
| type | 6 espresso cups, signed and numbered |
| copies | 52206 |
| manufacturer | 
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| inside | illy collection 1994 |
| bottom | 
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| other editions | - illy collection 1993 / Slow Food", S/N - illy collection 1994", bar cups not S/N - illy collection", S/N 1995 by Mitterteich - illy collection", not S/N by Mitterteich - amici collection", S/N |
| brochure | 
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