Aldo Tura Lacquered Goatskin Vide Poche With Metal Insert

From the Lombard workshop of Aldo Tura, a handmade vide poche of solid maple, covered in a greenish-gray, lacquered goatskin veneer, with an insert of chrome-plated brass. The beautifully crafted vessel itself is in excellent vintage condition—the chrome in the interior center of the insert has been worn away, revealing the brass underneath. There is no flaking. The luxe materials and emphatic spirit of glamorous hospitality are typical of Tura’s work. For the collector. . . .

ALDO TURA (1909–1963) was born in 1909 and began making experimental furniture by hand in the 1930s. He established a factory in 1939 outside of Milan, in the town of Lazatte. Working between the idioms of Art Deco and modernism, Tura created singular, high-end pieces, characterized by rich materials and artisanal production techniques. He was a unique design talent of the Italian mid-century; apart from his work, little is known about his life.

Tura employed a wide range of unusual materials, including eggshells, parchment, and goatskin in his designs. Bar cabinets in various sizes and with different functionality—from delicate trolleys to large, tiered, case goods—represented an important focus of his workshop, complemented by accessories such as ice buckets, carafes, ashtrays, and cocktail shakers, frequently covered with lacquered goatskin.

In the postwar years, as many designers were adjusting their methods to facilitate mass production, Tura remained committed to slow, traditional hand-craftsmanship. The complex forms and labor-intensive processes that he favored could never be adapted to large-scale factory systems. As a result, the number of works by Tura available on today’s vintage market is limited, and his output, in turn, has become highly collectible, especially examples with exotic finishes in intense palettes of red, yellow, and emerald green.

There is some difficulty positioning Tura in the context of modernism. His work is simply too luxe and decorative and too labor-intensive. The Brooklyn Museum in New York City has shown some of his works. He died in 1963. The Tura company in Lazzate, which continued to produce furniture based on his style, ceased operations in 2014.