Wright Auction

In an effort to ‘upscale’ the gin category, visionary Carillion CEO Michel Roux—the man behind the famous Absolut vodka campaign—launched Bombay Sapphire in 1986. Utilizing the martini as a vehicle to signify elegance and superior taste, Roux commissioned renowned artists and designers to create one-of-a-kind martini glasses for a multi-million dollar advertising campaign. Making its debut in 1996, the campaign featured ‘Sapphire Inspired’ designs by Jonathan Alder, Eva Zeisel, Karim Rashid, Dakota Jackson, Richard Jolley and Patricia Heller among others. From Rashid’s protruding olive-pick to Kagan’s lemon peel glass, each designer engineered a unique take on the classic martini glass to be captured in stunning, sumptuous photographs and featured in a massive print campaign. The examples used in the print ads were essentially one-of-a-kind and never went into mass-production (in this collection, they are works by Jackson, Rashid, Zeisel and Adler). Additional glasses were designed in small, limited editions for promotional purposes (designs by Jolley and Heller). 

In addition to glassware, artists contributed designs for accompanying accessories; a unique Allure carpet designed by Emma Gardner, a bottle hand-encrusted with over 10,000 Swarovski crystals conceived by Yves Behar, and a laser-cut stainless steel chandelier designed by Tord Boontje featuring the ten botanical notes in Bombay Sapphire— almond, lemon peel, licorice, juniper berries, orris root, angelica, coriander, cassia, cubeb and grains of paradise. The collection offered here was amassed by a brand executive and includes advertising tear sheets and the original drawing by Vladimir Kagan for his iconic lemon-peel-stemmed glass.