Anibou brings rare mid-century European furniture to Australian design obsessives

Iconic furniture often begins with a backstory. For example, Irish designer and architect Eileen Gray’s cliffside villa in southern France, E-1027, and its interiors, are part of modernist folklore. It’s both “romantic” and “infamous,” says Anibou sales director Alexander Lance.

Gray and her then-lover, Romanian architect Jean Badovici, built the place in the 1920s and designed furniture specifically for it. Swiss French artist Le Corbusier – a friend of Badovici – famously painted murals all over the house, much to Gray’s chagrin. The tempestuous working relationship between these leading modernists has only added to the villa’s notoriety. Today, it stands as a blueprint for 20th-century design.

Almost a century on, Gray’s designs are available through Anibou, an Australian distributor of rare European designer furniture that’s been around since 1989. Every Eileen Gray piece in Anibou’s collection was designed for this French Riviera home (each is a reproduction of the original). “It’s not just a piece of furniture, you’re buying a piece of history,” Lance says.

This philosophy underpins Anibou. The Sydney and Melbourne-based design destination prides itself on delivering museum-quality European pieces to Australian shores for both private and commercial clients. Anibou works with a tightly curated selection of nine licensed brands – some of which have been on its books for decades. “In a sea of so many furniture brands, people understand that these companies have been around [for a long time],” Lance says.

“Many of the pieces [we sell] were designed for specific or important buildings. There’s a deep history that dates back to the 1930s.” In fact, three of the brands it stocks were founded in the 19th century – Gervasoni, Thonet Gmbh and USM – and only one, Vaarnii, was founded in the 21st century. Hailing from Switzerland, Finland, Germany, the UK and Italy, these manufacturers are beloved by design professionals and obsessives alike.

Each year, a member of the Anibou team heads to Milan to source new pieces. Fortnightly or monthly, the design trove coordinates collections from each supplier. By now, it’s a “well-oiled machine”, Lance says.

One of its newer acquisitions is Swiss designer and manufacturer USM. Lance points to its timeless modular furniture and the decades-long “cult following” the brand has enjoyed in Europe and Australia. Artek is one of Anibou’s largest residential brands, its Finnish sensibility resonating with function-first audiences. Renowned Italian brand Gervasoni is another popular pick for pared-back, elegant pieces.

But there’s just as much appetite for Anibou’s statement pieces. Eileen Gray’s sculptural Bar Stool No. 2 is one example. So are Italian designer Paola Navone’s Brass 95 and 96 lamps. “They’ve done extremely well,” Lance says. “It’s not a painted metal. It’s a solid sheet of brass, hand-beaten. That’s a very pure form of material.”

What’s remarkable is that, despite the generational lifespans of Anibou’s stable of brands, not much has changed over the years in terms of design and production. “Artek’s manufacturing facility hasn’t changed since the ’30s,” Lance says. “So its famous Stool 60 is still made in Finland using the same methods as they did [back then].

“The only thing that’s different is the screw; they now use a Phillips head screw, as opposed to a flat head.”