Billy Wilder\'s own THONET vintage poster Herman Miller Charles + Ray Eames Vitra
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Billy Wilder\'s own THONET vintage poster Herman Miller Charles + Ray Eames Vitra:
$110.00
This is Billy Wilder\'s personal copy of this great THONET poster.
On May 18, 2000, at Christie\'s in Los Angeles, I bought this, and a few other items from Billy Wilder, who was still alive at that time, God bless him.
He collected many things, and in particular he had a passion for Thonet. In fact, there is a Thonet chair in the Eames House, a present from Billy and Audrey Wilder to Charles and Ray Eames.
And this was his own copy of this poster, which is 23 inches by 34 inches. The color of the image you see is pretty much accurate, I had this poster scanned at Kinko\'s.
ALL OF THE FINE PRINT ON THE POSTER IS VERY LEGIBLE. See detail for that.
It\'s been rolled, it\'s got a little wear, a little light crinkling on the edges, but there are no tears and it will frame beautifully. It is not an antique poster, it\'s some kind of photographic reproduction of an old Thonet catalogue.
At one point, I believe Wilder did an exhibition and sale of his Thonet pieces and some of his posters, and this poster may have been organized by Alexander Von Vegesack, formerly of the Vitra Design Museum, who worked with Wilder, and Wilder himself.
Whatever one thinks of this as a poster, it\'s a great document of Thonet production. In addition, it\'s a very nice graphic. I\'m starting the sale low, with , maybe you\'ll get lucky, and definitely you\'ll get a great thing.
Here, thanks to a question from an interested er, more details:
Q:is it an original antique poster? Than it should be printed on very thin paper. I think Billy Wilder has collected only originals and not photocopys or reprints. If you own the original from the year around 1873 I am very interested to buy.Jul-15-14A:Thank you for this question, you motivated me to do some more research. First, I do not believe this poster was made in 1873, I believe it is a twentieth century reproduction, probably final quarter of the twentieth century. And indeed, Billy Wilder and Alexander Von Vegesack, then curator of the Vitra Design Museum, did an exhibition of their Thonet and other bentwood furniture. Perhaps this was made for that exhibition. You can read about that at if you do a search for an on line article called \"ALEXANDER VON VEGESACK FALLS IN LOVE WITH THINGS\"Here is an exact excerpt from that article.
\"During one of his frequent trips to flea markets, he found his most enduring love: bentwood furniture made by Thonet, a company founded by Michael Thonet, who began twisting steamed wood into chairs in 1830. Von Vegesack\'s passion for these objects led him to research and write the definitive book on Thonet, whom he considers the founding father of industrial furniture design. It also earn him an unexpected friend in Hollywood. While travelling in California in 1981, he read in a newspaper that Billy Wilder, the director of \"Some Like It Hot\" and other award-winning films, had died. As he knew that Wilder had an important collection of bentwood furniture, he immediately called Wilder\'s home and asked to speak to his heirs. \"Why on earth do you want to do that?\", asked the man who had answered the phone. \"You can speak to me directly.\" Wilder was so amused by the mix-up that he wanted to meet von Vegesack, and they became friends. Von Vegesack ended up organising a joint exhibition of their collections of bentwood furniture, after which Wilder gave him a rare rocking chaise longues by Thonet. The chair now sits in the Thonet Museum in Boppard am Rhein, the first museum set up by von Vegesack, in the 1980s. (He began overseeing the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein in 1989, the year it opened to the public. It has since become a leading institution.)\"
Now is your chance to own it, and I\'m listing one other item from Billy Wilder\'s own collection, see other listing, and see my other listings for great Alexander Girard and Herman Miller Eames items.
Winning buyer pays priority mail postage, I\'ll include the tube at no cost to you.
International buyers, please inquire, postal rates vary by country.
Billy Wilder\'s own THONET vintage poster Herman Miller Charles + Ray Eames Vitra:
$110.00