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Bennett Winch SC Holdall

B&B Italia Serie Up 2000 Armchair and Pouf

B&B Italia Serie Up 2000 Armchair and Pouf
B&B Italia Serie Up 2000 Armchair and Pouf
photo © B&B
photo © EON, United Artists
Thumper welcomes Bond in Elrod House, sitting on a B&B Italia Serie Up 2000 Armchair in Diamonds Are Forever
photo © EON, United Artists

photos © Terry O'Neill
Sean Connery at the time of Diamonds Are Forever and Pierce Brosnan in a 2013 photoshoot for Hackett, both on the B&B Italia Serie Up 2000 Armchair
photos © Terry O'Neill

photo © EON, United Artists / Artifort
In the same room, an Artifort Ribbon Chair designed in 1966 by Pierre Paulin can also be spotted.
photo © EON, United Artists / Artifort

photo © EON, United Artists
Other items in the room include three magazines on a glass table: Time Magazine (May 17, 1971), Fortune Magazine (April 1971) and Venture Magazine (May 1971).
photo © EON, United Artists

photos © Getty
Behind the scenes shots of Sean Connery sitting in the B&B Italia Serie Up 2000 chair and the chair in the background
photos © Getty

A red B&B Italia Serie Up 2000 Armchair and Pouf UP5_6 can be spotted in the 1971 film Diamonds Are Forever.

In the film, the chair is part of the interior of Willard Whyte's summer house ("on the ridge, about ten miles out of town"). The house used for the film was Elrod House, in Palm Springs.

James Bond (Sean Connery) enters the house, and is welcomed by Bambi (Lola Larson), who sits in the Serie Up 2000 armchair in the main living room. During the following fight between Bond and Thumper (Trina Parks) and Bambi, the red chair can be seen in the background.

Bond is thrown into the pool, and there he finally wins the fight when Felix Leiter comes in with his men.

James Bond doesn't sit in the chair in the film, but in a series of behind-the-scenes photos, Sean Connery is pictured on the chair, resting between shoots.

In an iconic photo by photographer Terry O'Neill, Sean Connery sits in the B&B Italia Serie Up 2000 Armchair, his feet on the pouf (ottoman), looking back at the photographer though the lens of a Nikon F camera (note that a Nikon F camera is also used in Diamonds Are Forever by Mr Wint and Mr Kidd on the Skinny Bridge in Amsterdam).

The photo of Sean Connery was recreated in 2013, by Terry O'Neill himself, for fashion brand Hackett London and GQ, with Pierce Brosnan sitting on a red B&B Italia Serie Up 2000 Armchair and Pouf in the same pose as Connery, holding a Leica CL camera.

The B&B Italia Serie Up 2000 Armchair was designed in 1961 by Gaetano Pesce. The large armchair with feminine shapes and a spherical ottoman tied to the armchair is according to the designer a metaphor of "a large comfortable womb and recalls ancient statues of fertility goddesses." The designer explains his design: "At that time, I was telling a personal story about my concept of women: I believe that women have always been unwilling prisoners of themselves. This is why I decided to give this armchair the shape of a woman with a ball and chain, a traditional image of a prisoner."

Over the past decades, the Serie Up 2000 UP5_6 armchair and pouf has become an international icon with different names, from "Big Mama" to "Blow Up" and remains a popular item.

In the room at Elrod House in Diamonds Are Forever we can also see an Artifort Ribbon Chair designed in 1966 by Pierre Paulin. This is another iconic designer chair, featured in the MoMA collection.

Other items in the room include three magazines on a glass table: Time Magazine (May 17, 1971 edition), Fortune Magazine (April 1971 edition) and Venture Magazine (May 1971 edition).

Thanks to Vincent van Raffen for the alert
Product Code: 
ac066

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