Illy's Cup Collection -- the latest release!

[A2chromepeacock]

Is a set of bowls

Seems like there hasn't been a good, or great, set in a while. Beauty being in the eye of the beholder and all.

Paging David Byrne...

[Marshall]

Is a set of bowls

Seems like there hasn't been a good, or great, set in a while.

They also seem to have discontinued the Sebastiao Salgado "In Principio" series, which was supposed to have a new cup every year. Since he's one of my favorite photographers, I was looking forward to many more.

[cannonfodder]

I have two sets of Illy cups (Pen Test by Padraig Timoney and le jour la nuit le jour by Louise Bourgeois). I would like to have two others, the Texture of Home Francis Ford Coppola and the Rufus Willis collection. A third would be the Bus Stops by Darryl Pottorf, but they are just too expensive for my blood. I could get gas for the car for a couple of weeks, or espresso cups. Gas wins.

[jasonmolinari]

The last cool set that i bought was Atelier Van Lieschout (sp?) with the body parts....

[boston coffee party]

I have never owned any of the Illy cups, are they made out of something special or are you paying for the design / name?

[gislipals]

The original Thun shape is rather great, but you can get similar, or identical cups for much less. Of all the money that an espresso nut will blow on his hobby, 100 bucks for 4 espresso cups isn't that mad though tbh

But yes you're only paying for the design. Then again, people collect stamps/coins that collect dust in drawers and cabinets. If I'm going to be collecting inanimate objects, I'd much rather have them functional, and pretty to look at, but that's just me.

I don't exactly collect them, but I have the pen drawing set, the aliens and body parts.

The cups themselves are porcelain but since they've been made by different manufacturers the exact weight and thickness of the cups has varied through the years.

[narc]

In my early geeky years I purchased couple complete sets, Coffee Flowers Ideas (James Rosenquist) and stray cups on eb. Reality kicked in. Becoming a bad habit scanning eb for overpriced cups. So I stopped. Like how many cups can you use on daily basis? Did get lucky on couple strays. A '93 Faces (Sandra Chia) cup & '99 Pottorf. These I pretty much use daily. The sets are gathering dust in a drawer.

Interesting that depending what year where & who manufactures the cups. '93 Faces made in Italy by R---ard C---. '99 Pottorf made in Germany, '00 Minimalia made in Germany by Rosenthal, '01 Italy by IPA, '03 Rosenquist in Italy by IPA.