Japan at Liberty by Liberty Department Store - 1991

Offering: An exceptional collection of fourteen rare ephemera from the Liberty Department Store exhibition, shown as part of the Fall 1991 London Japanese Festival, and featuring the catalog of the first exhibit of design prototypes by Tokyo Creative, the group of fourteen established in 1990 to develop and promote the best in Japanese design. With the catalog is offered: the exhibitor guide with folding floor plan, the set of illustrated exhibitor cards, the invitation to the opening of the exhibition, and the business card of Gary Rowland and associates, the design group responsible for the publications' design, including the original, geometric silk screen print for the catalog's cover. Prototypes: Most were later manufactured. Several have been recognized as designs of distinction including: the first Muji Shaft Drive Bicycle (design by Yasui Satoshi), 1 of 25 contemporary designs selected for the London Design Museum; the first Olympus µ[mju:] (design by Yoshihisa Maitani), an ultra portable with no case and integrated lens cover, ergonomically designed to fit in one hand; the Olympus Ecru (design by Naoki Sakai), a limited edition automatic compact, white with finishing after optics instrumentation, given Germany's 1991 Innovative Design Award; the Seiko Asterisk wrist watch (design by Naoki Sakai and Shunji Yamanaka), with stainless steel block body, and analogue display inspired by 1950s sports car speedometers. Rarity: virtually unobtainable. Except for the rare catalog, the ephemera are from examples reserved for collaborators. Condition: Catalog: Very Good / Ephemera: Good to Fine with at least eight in very good condition (as detailed below). Catalog: Deluxe commemorative in the spiral binding with yolk card wrappers and transparent, heavyweight acetate overlay with the Gary Rowland silk screen color print on the upper side and an elegant L-shape border design with contrasting white and black letters on the lower side. / Size: 350 x 220 mm. Pagination: Complete; 52 unnumbered pages, the introduction to exhibition and foreword on Japanese design by Jonathan Glancey, layout with 21 prototypes illustrated and described, each on its own page with facing color page-no text-alternating colors of fuchsia, red, lime and tangerine. Condition: Wrappers with Print: bright, rubs / Card Wrappers: light edge wear / Pages: few with light edge wear / Binding: Excellent, one crown punch hole slit, foot with light edgewear. Floor Plan: Exterior: Fuchsia with Japanese characters and the Japanese Festival label seal / Interior: color blocked with English captions. Size: Open State: 448 x 448 mm / Closed: 205 x 210 mm. Condition: Good, edgewear, seal slit. Invitation to Opening: Fuchsia, lime and red folding card, interior with event information, rear with exhibitor guide; 161 x 121 mm. Condition: Very Good, slight edge wear. GRa Card: upper side in their house yellow, lower side with color illustrations of 90s designs for Liberty. Condition: a top corner with slight buckle, otherwise fine. Folding Exhibitor Cards: Interior color illustrations / 200 x 100 mm. Condition: 1) Tokyo Creative: About Fine. / 2) Supermarket: Good+, light tip wear. / 3) Nuno with textile designs by Jun'ichi Arai and Reiko Sudo. Good, light edgewear. Double-Side Exhibitor Cards: Title on upper side / Illustration on lower side / 200 x 100 mm. Condition: 1) Yuki Torii Collection: Very Good, slight rubs. 2) Issey Miyaki Permanente Collection: Good, tip wear. 3) Japan Creative Housewares: Fine. 4) Al-jab bed linens and Kenji Kobayashi bedroom furniture: Near Fine, light wear to top tips. 5) Osamu Maeda Collection: Good+, slight wear to top tips. 6) Kitchen Accessories: Very Good. 7) Bizen ware by Yosei Itaka. Fine. Other Prototype Highlights: Juturna Household Hot Tub [Inax]; design by Teruhiko Kitamura, awarded 1991 METI G-Mark. Shower Toilet Series 300 lavatory seat with integrated bidet + controls to adjust water temperature [Inax], an innovative design. Playoffice table and desk [Itoki]; designs by Isao Hosoe. Air Purifier [Nomura], a new standard for elegance. LTC-2 Low-energy, mounted fluorescent lamp with wide luminosity range via adjustable cylinder case [Seibu], an innovative design. 3LC 3000 LCD flat screen television in laptop format, transportable by briefcase after folding down [Philips, Japan], awarded 1991 iF Product Design Award. Two Unproduced Prototypes: Millennium Tower, sited for an artificial island in Tokyo Bay, a self-contained, stacked hyper-structure designed by Norman Foster to generate its own energy and process its own waste. Then, it would have been the world's tallest building, its 840 meter height twice that of the Empire State Building, capable of housing 50,000+ workers. [Obayashi] XF-4 Motorbike with high performance two-stroke, one cylinder 125cc air-cooled engine and automatic transmission, aspects of its design later used for the Bandit GJ74A and RM125 series. [Suzuki] Other Prototypes: Electronic balloon toy flied by remote control with microchip Tokyo map [Bandai]. CB-1 couch bed [Nishikawa Sangyo]. Modular Accessories Platform Bed [Nishikawa Sangyo], design by Jean-Pierre Vitrac. 4LC 4050 Pocket Television 4" liquid crystal screen miniature desktop display with teletext capability [Philips, Japan]. Can Crusher [Seibu], still in production. Spirit Wristwatch [Seiko]. Info-Art display module [Sharp]. SW-1 Motorbike [Suzuki]. Additional Images: by request.