illy collection cups started more or less as a fluke. The company redesigned their espresso cup in 1991, contracting Matteo Thun to come up with a design that would be unique to illy, and also functional to specifications illy set out as being important for espresso. Thun came up with the new cup with the donut handle, and in 1991, there was a limited release of the cup as they started to phase out the old cups.

In 1992, they launched the first "artist series" cups, Arti e Mestieri, which featured six cups, each one "designed" by a different artist. There was no stopping them.

By 1993, the illy Collection art cups were in full swing. New cups, different sets, and the concept of "one artist, six (or four, or one) platform for them to create art on" took off. Between 1991 and 1998, there were at least 32 different cup set releases. Some were single cups (like Fossile, or Federico Fellini's Ginger e Fred cup), some were extremely limited productions (like the 100 Venexia Gold cups); others were in sets of six. There were also some cappuccino cups released at this time, including Il Ballo del Caffe.

Here are two tables. The first shows cups I own between 1991 and 1998. The next list is the cups I don't own (but would like - so if you have any of them, email me at mark@coffeekid.com).

Cups I Own - 1991-1998
1991	--- ---	--- ---	--- ---	--- ---
1992	--- ---	--- ---	--- ---	--- ---
1993	Prima Collezione Artist: Simone Meentzen	--- ---	--- ---	--- ---
1994	--- ---	--- ---	--- ---	--- ---
1995	Spirali (bar set only) Artist: Roberta Pietrobelli	--- ---	--- ---	--- ---
1996	Videogrammi Artist: Nam June Paik	Italian Riviera Artist: James Rosenquist	--- ---	--- ---
1997	Il Ballo Del Caffe (cappuccino) Artist: Sandro Chia	Roma Aeterna Artist: A.R. Penck	Fossile (single cup) Artist: Paolo Rossetti	Venexia (White, single cup) Artist: Luca Trazzi
1998	World Cups Artist: Robert Rauschenberg	Laietana (single cup) Artist	--- ---	--- ---

Cups I Do Not Own - 1991-1998
1991	The White Cup Artist: Matteo Thun	-- --	-- --	-- --
1992	Arti e Mestieri Artist: Multiple artists	-- --	-- --	-- --
1993	La Creativita Non Ha Confini Artist: Multiple artists	Facce Italiane (6 cups) Artist: Sandro Chia	Pompeii (7th cup) Artist: Sandro Chia	Ginger e Fred (single cup) Artist: Federico Fellini
1994	Ceramica 1 (single cup) Artist: Marino Marini	Braccia, Arti, Piedi, Parti (6 cappa cups) Artist: Andrea Manetti	Trazzine (6 cups) Artist: Luca Trazzi	-- --
1995	China (6 cups) Artist: An Du	Teatro (single cup) Artist: Emanuele Luzzati	-- --	-- --
1996	Videogramma (7th cup) Artist: Nam June Paik	Basket Play Ground (6 cups) Artist: Paolo Kervischer	Beach Plaza (single cup) Artist: Luca Trazzi	-- --
1997	Il Ballo Del Caffe (6 cups) Artist: Sandro Chia	Mambo (7th cup) Artist: Sandro Chia	Stati D'Animo (6 cups) Artist: Mario Giacomelli	Venexia Silver and Gold (2 cups) Artist: Luca Trazzi
1998	Los Ninos (6 cups) Artist: Multiple	Silver Cup Artist: David Byrne	Paris Cup (World Cups extra) Artist: Robert Rauschenberg	-- --

Again, if you have any cups in my "do not own" list, and want to sell or trade, email me at mark@coffeekid.com.

Illy cup collecting is a big deal to me. I have over 60 different sets in the collection (I think they're up to 95 total sets or single cups now). I imagine there's people in N. America who own more sets than I do, but I haven't found them yet. :)