A Michelin red guide dating from 1900 was sold for 26,500 euros at an auction of objects linked to the French tire brand, beating the world record set for such a work, the organizers announced on Saturday.
Friday afternoon, at the Clermont-Ferrand Auction House, the guide was sold for 26,500 euros excluding fees to a French starred chef, or 33,549 euros paid by the buyer. The last record dates back to 2015, with a sale of 22,000 euros excluding fees.
"Attachment of collectors"
Bernard Vassy, auctioneer quoted in a press release, underlined "the attachment of collectors" and in particular starred chefs to the "Guide Rouge Michelin" brand, with a vintage whose value "has practically increased fivefold" in twenty years.
In 1900, the little red booklet had been distributed free of charge to some 35,000 copies by the brand in the Bibendum with the aim of "encouraging and facilitating car trips from city to city," Pierre Gabriel Gonzalez told AFP, organizer of the International Convention of Michelin Collectors. The guide 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 guide became chargeable in 1920, when Michelin removed advertising from its pages and began recommending restaurants. Today, “chefs often display the guides in which they are mentioned in the entrance to their restaurants” and “little by little, a certain number of them have taken to the game of having the complete collection. », Detailed Gabriel Gonzalez. In 2000, one of the first 1900 guides to auction was sold to Michelin-starred chef Pierre Troisgros.
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