Juicy Salif
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | |
 Juicy Salif by Philippe Starck | |
| Type | Citrus reamer |
|---|---|
| Inception | 1990 |
| Manufacturer | Alessi S.p.A. |
Juicy Salif, a citrus reamer designed by Philippe Starck in 1990, is considered an icon of industrial design, and has been displayed in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art[1] and the Metropolitan Museum of Art[2] in New York City, as well as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.[3] It has also received this distinction at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum[4] and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.[5]
History
The sleek, exotic-looking shape was inspired by a calamari squid.[7]
The president of the manufacturer, Alberto Alessi, later recalled:
I received a napkin from Starck, on it among some incomprehensible marks (tomato sauce, in all likelihood) there were some sketches. Sketches of squid. They started on the left, and as they worked their way over to the right, they took on the unmistakable shape of what was to become the juicy salif. While eating a dish of squid and squeezing a lemon over it, Starck drew on the napkin his famous lemon squeezer.[6][8]
Alberto Alessi, in a recorded video interview posted on Dezeen, said "I am very happy with this project because I consider it a big joke to everybody. [...] It is the most controversial squeezer of the century I must say, but one of the most amusing projects I have done in my career."[7] He regarded it as one of the company's most successful products.[7]
Sales
For the tenth anniversary of its launch, 10,000 Juicy Salifs were issued, individually numbered and gold-plated. But this luxury version came with instructions warning that the juicer should never be used with actual fruit, because the finish would corrode.[9] There has also been a grey/black (anthracite) coloured version, of which 47,000 un-numbered examples were produced between 1991 and 2004.[10] Both now are collector's items, though an urban legend perpetuates the idea that the anthracite version is rarer than the gold-plated one.[citation needed]
By 2003, a total of more than 500,000 of the iconic design artifacts had been sold.[9]