Illustration: Three Purple Guides dated 1900 destined for public sale on the 4th Michelin Collectors Conference, July 18 and 19, 2003 in Clermont-Ferrand. – Thierry ZOCCOLAN / AFP
A Michelin purple information courting from 1900 was bought for 26,500 euros at an public sale of objects linked to the French tire model, beating the world document set for such a piece, the organizers introduced on Saturday.
Friday afternoon, on the Clermont-Ferrand Public sale Home, the information was bought for 26,500 euros excluding charges to a French starred chef, or 33,549 euros paid by the client. The final document dates again to 2015, with a sale of 22,000 euros excluding charges.
“Attachment of collectors”
Bernard Vassy, auctioneer quoted in a press launch, underlined “the attachment of collectors” and particularly starred cooks to the “Guide Rouge Michelin” model, with a classic whose worth “has practically increased fivefold” in twenty years.
In 1900, the little purple booklet had been distributed freed from cost to some 35,000 copies by the model within the Bibendum with the purpose of “encouraging and facilitating car trips from city to city,” Pierre Gabriel Gonzalez instructed AFP, organizer of the Worldwide Conference of Michelin Collectors. The information thus gave “the coordinates in each city in alphabetical order of the hotel, of the blacksmith who had started repairing cars, of the grocer who sold the gas cans …”.
The information grew to become chargeable in 1920, when Michelin eliminated promoting from its pages and started recommending eating places. At this time, “chefs often display the guides in which they are mentioned in the entrance to their restaurants” and “little by little, a sure variety of them have taken to the sport of getting the entire assortment. », Detailed Gabriel Gonzalez. In 2000, one of many first 1900 guides to public sale was bought to Michelin-starred chef Pierre Troisgros.
