
James Garguilo
Specialist
LOT 41 †
A rare 1898 'Nunc est Bibendum' Michelin poster after O'Galop (Marius Rossillon, French 1867-1946),
'Le pneu Michelin boit l'obstacle'- 'The Michelin tyre drinks up the obstacles'. Michelin humour in the form of the unmistakable image of Monsieur Bibendum. Marius Roussillon, working under his pseudonym 'O'Galop', depicts Bibendum attending a banquet and raising a toast – Nunc est Bibendum! ('now let us drink') – with a goblet filled with assorted road debris. His companions, tyre 'Y' and tyre 'X' alongside are, quite literally, deflated by it all. The green background and the red lettering are exclusive to this incomparable 1898 first-edition Michelin poster, one of only a handful of first-edition examples to have survived. In 1899, Michelin changed their house colours to blue and yellow, and the subsequent, simplified editions of this poster bore their new colours in the place of the green and red of the first edition.

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| † | Taxable |
| VAT at the prevailing rate on Hammer Price and Buyer's Premium. |