Bibendum design armchair, inspired by Eileen Gray's original project. Designed for a famous fashion designer at the beginning of the 20th Century, the chair design and name have been inspired by the famous Michelin man. Structure is in solid wood covered with expanded polyurethane and chromed steel tube. Leather covers are available in twelve different colours and in three different types of leather. Bibendum armchair is a made in Italy design product realized by an hand-craft workshop specialized in metal and leather manufacturing.
Measurements
- cm 90 x d.83 x h.73
Leather Type
- calf leather
- full grain leather
- aniline leather
Structure
- chromed steel tube
Leather Characteristics
Calf Leather: bovine leather coming from European and Extra-european slaughterhouses, chrome tan, dyeing according to CEE rules, average measure m² 4/5 and thickness 0,9/1 mm. Calf leather or contract leather is a corrected grain leather. It has a very competitive price, it's fairly soft to the touch and long lasting. Calf leather is a material with an excellent value for money.
Full Grain Leather: bovine leather coming from European and Extra-european slaughterhouses, chrome tan, dyeing according to CEE rules, average measures m² 4/5 and thickness 1,4/1,6 mm. Grain leather is still corrected grain but with a higher thickness than calf leather. This guarantees a longer duration and resistance. This leather surface is generally a little bit coarser to the touch compared to other kind of leathers.
Aniline Leather: bovine leather coming from European and Extra-european slaughterhouses, chrome tan, dyeing according to CEE rules, average measure m² 4/5 and thickness 1,1/1,2 mm. Aniline leather is the most valuable leather used in the furniture sector. The superficial grain is natural and without corrections, it's also possible to catch a glimpse of the leather pores, veins and lines; infact the surface is not always homogeneous as in full grain or calf leathers. Aniline Leather also results very soft to the touch.
Designer
Eileen GrayEileen Gray had Scottish-Irish origins. When her father died in 1900, she had already been living in London for two years and was attending drawing lessons at "Slade School of Fine Art". She discovered D. Charles laboratory, a painter specialized in lacquer work. She worked with him and learned all the fundamentals she needed for the whole period of her professional career. In 1902 she went to Paris where she kept specializing in the drawing art and in oriental lacquers. Here she met Sugawara, a Japanese with whom she perfected her lacquers knowledge. She was noticed by the great tailor Jacques Doucet, an art collector that hired her to furnish his entire house. She also realized two tables and a screening, her only dated and signed works. Her first big work was Madame Lévy's furniture (the famous hat designer Suzanne Talbot) in Rue de Lota. In 1922 she opened, in the elegant Rue Faubourg St. Honoré, the "Jean Désert" gallery where she displayed and sold furniture, screenings and lamps. After four years of intense studies, advised by theorist Jean Badovici, she built in Roguebrune, on the Mediterranean coast, a house for herself: wide and practical, with many different thoughtful and funny details. Also Badovic apartment in Paris and her second house in Castellar on the riviera are an attestation of Gray's intelligence and creativity richness. Not long before her death she had the satisfaction of displaying some of her most significant works at "Musée Des Arts Decoratifs" in Paris.
