Helicoid stair case Model M400, by Roger Tallon, France, c1964.

We have 19 steps plus a landing step, each 20 cm high, which would allow a staircase of up to 400 cm or possibly even two smaller staircases. The central pole has been fabricated to fit our gallery and is approximately 250 cm high.

Roger Tallon has been a leading figure in French industrial since the 1950s. He studied engineering in Paris before joining Studio Avas in 1951. He left Avas soon after to join Technes, a design consultancy established by Jacques Vienot.

He taught at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris from 1963 before he and Jaques Dumond established the Department of Design. In 1967 he started what was to become a long term collaboration with the French National Railway service where he initially began a project to modernise the train fleet. He went on to work with France’s own Bullet Train, the TGV where he participated in the design of almost all aspects from carriage interiors to the brand identity of the company.

In the early 1990s, Roger Tallon became Design Director of the Eurostar project, a joint British, French and Belgium project.

Apart from his design work for large industrial concerns, he was also a prolific designer of smaller items, from ski boots to cameras, watches to stair cases and motorbikes to TVs.

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