ES94-99 (Poi Ti Spiego)
ES94-99 (Poi Ti Spiego)
I found out about these cups because of a picture that I found in an old Amici
brochure. On image beside, there is an unknown cup
in the middle (yes I know, the cup on the left is the Beige Trazzine, but that's
another story). As you can see, the cup has the typical illy or amici collection
shape, but the decoration is unknown? You will not find it on any illy or amici publication,
but in the 1999-2000 FrancisFrancis brochure, the decoration shows up again.
This time on a FrancisFrancis espresso cup. The cup is a part of the Poi Ti Spiego
ES94-99 series which were designed by Ettore Sottsass. ES94-99, that's a strange name
for espresso cups and why were these cups not released by Illy of Amici? Well,
here is the story…In 1994, Francesco Illy asked Ettore Sottsass to create another series of collection cups for amici/illy. So, the Austrian born (Innsbruck 1917) designer and ardent design philosopher created four cups as prototypes. When you search on the internet, you will find that Sottsass has been described as 'a forward-looking designer' who is also mischievous! That may explain why he used erotic motives to decorate the espresso cups. Some illy collection prototypes were made by Mitterteich and Francesco Illy liked the design. But...the rest of the family thought otherwise and they denied the production in 1997 so this project ended. Francesco Illy: "The difference between the artist in me and the persons who do not understand that? It might be."
But, times change and in 1999 Francesco Illy (who bought the rights of the designs)
contacted Sottsass again and he released the cups together with two new ones as part of
the FrancisFrancis 
Poi Ti Spiego series.
The cups were named ES94-99.As far as I know only about 10 prototype sets were made. All the sets have the same design, but some of them do have an "illy collection" inscription inside and an "illy collection 1997" bottom stamp. Some others don't, they just came with the Mitterteich botom stamp.
| year | 1997 |
| artist |  Ettore Sottsass
|
| type | - 1 espresso cup, not signed and numbered |
| copies | 10? prototypes, not listed by illy |
| manufacturer | 
|
| inside | |
| bottom | |
| other editions | |
| brochure |