Heller Excalibur Toilet Brush
Available June 2024
"High design for a humble object," read the headline in the New York Tirnes Home Section on February 16, 1995. Philippe Starck had partnered with Heller to satisfy a longtime desire and the result was making news. "It's a product I wanted to do for 20 years," said Starck. "To design a toilet brush would be the most humble service I could give. I've always thought it would be the apotheosis of my career."
The French designer and architect is known for bringing the perfect blend of wit and elegance to everything from furniture to interiors. He sought out Heller to collaborate on Excalibur because he knew it could design the technology and special molds required for his design. Featuring a sword-like handle that protects the user's hand and a tapered wand capped with a nylon brush, Excalibur looks like a flower from outer space when it's unsheathed. In 2000, Excalibur was added to the permanent collection at MoMA.
MEASUREMENTS:
- Diameter: 4.75 inch
- Height: 16.75 inch
MATERIALS:
- Recyclable 100% post-consumer recycled plastic base and handle
- Polypropylene brush head
Philippe Starck
France 1949
“I like to open the doors of the human brain” - Philippe Starck
School dropout Philippe Starck jump-started his career by designing two nightclub interiors in Paris in the 1970s. The success of the clubs won the attention of President Francois Mitterand, who asked Starck to refurbish one of the private apartments in the Elysee Palace. Two years later, Starck designed the interior of the Café Costes, in Paris and was on his way to becoming a design celebrity. In quick succession, he created elegant interiors for the Royalton and Paramount hotels in New York, the Delano in Miami and the Mondrian in Los Angeles. He also began to produce chairs, lamps, motorbikes, boats and a line of house wares and kitchen utensils, like his Juicy Salif for Alessi.
During the 1980s and 90s Starck continued his prolific creativity. His products have sensual, appealing forms suggestive of character or personal identity and Starck often conferred upon them clever, poetic or whimsical names (for example, his La Marie chair and playful Prince Aha stool). Starck’s furniture also often reworks earlier decorative styles. For example, the elegant Dr. No chair is a traditional club chair made unexpectedly of injection-molded plastic. While the material and form would seem to be contradictions, it is just such paradoxes that make Starck's work so compelling. Starck’s approach to design is subversive, intelligent and always interesting.
His objects surprise and delight even as they transgress boundaries and subvert expectations. During the 90s Starck has also begun to promote product longevity and to stipulate that morality, honesty and objectivity become part of the design process. He has said that the designer's role is to create more “happiness” with less. For all his fame Starck’s work remains a serious and important expression of 20th century creativity.
Heller has created a simple paradigm: good design, industrial production and reasonable prices. Heller is an international furniture manufacturer with production in the US and Europe. Started in 1971, Heller’s first product was a line of stacking dinnerware designed by Massimo Vignelli that is included in the MoMA’s permanent design collection in New York.
Heller launched its furniture division in 1998. The 1998 Bellini Chair, designed by Mario Bellini, won the Compasso d’Oro Award. This initial success kicked off a prestigious line of award winning collections including the Frank Gehry Furniture Collection (2004), the Vignelli Chair (2004), designed by Lella and Massimo Vignelli, and the Kiss Sofa (2004), designed by Studio 65. Heller continues to offer leading designers the opportunity to work with new technologies and to create innovative products.
This item qualifies for free door-to-door delivery within Canada, with a few exceptions:
- Orders $180 or less are charged a $35 small order fee at checkout.
- Additional charges apply for Remote Delivery Areas including the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and other remote locations outside of major city centres.
- Small items will be delivered by FedEx or other courier service in your area.
- Large items will be delivered by freight service. This is standard curbside delivery; meaning the driver will not haul up an incline or up stairs, and it will be your responsibility to bring the item inside, complete any assembly, and remove packaging debris.
- For a White Glove Delivery quote which includes unpackaging and assembly, please make a note in the Comments section during Checkout and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
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