Aldo Tura Chess Table
Vintage 1970s Italian Game Tables
Goatskin
People Also Browsed
Antique Early 1900s English Late Victorian Game Tables
Mother-of-Pearl, Walnut
2010s American Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
Brass, Bronze, Enamel, Nickel
2010s Chandeliers and Pendants
Metal
Vintage 1920s Indian Anglo-Indian Game Tables
Oak, Pine
2010s Czech Scandinavian Modern Game Tables
Concrete
21st Century and Contemporary Swedish Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Textile
Antique 19th Century Swiss Black Forest Models and Miniatures
Bone
Antique 19th Century English Game Tables
Fruitwood, Walnut
Antique 19th Century American Adirondack Game Tables
Wood
Vintage 1950s American American Craftsman Sofas
Poplar, Tulipwood, Walnut
Antique Early 19th Century Swedish Empire Side Tables
Mahogany
Antique 19th Century Regency Game Tables
Mahogany, Satinwood
Late 20th Century American Game Tables
Wood
Antique Early 19th Century French Game Tables
Stone, Marble, Bronze
Vintage 1970s Italian End Tables
Goatskin, Wood
Antique 19th Century English Regency Side Tables
Brass
Recent Sales
Vintage 1960s Italian Regency Game Tables
Metal
20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Game Tables
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Game Tables
Brass
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Game Tables
Goatskin
Vintage 1940s Italian Mid-Century Modern Game Tables
Late 20th Century Modern Game Tables
Brass
Vintage 1960s Italian Game Tables
Brass
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Nesting Tables and Stacking Tables
Goatskin, Wood
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Card Tables and Tea Tables
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Game Tables
Onyx, Metal
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Game Tables
Vintage 1970s Italian Art Deco Game Tables
Other
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Game Tables
Brass
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Goatskin, Glass, Paint, Parchment Paper
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
Wood
Vintage 1950s Italian Game Tables
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Game Tables
Goatskin
20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Nesting Tables and Stacking Tables
Goatskin, Mahogany
Vintage 1950s Italian Game Tables
Leather, Mahogany
Aldo Tura for sale on 1stDibs
One of the most enigmatic and polarizing figures to emerge in Italian design, Aldo Tura is an outlier in the world of mid-century furniture. The designer’s glamorous bar carts, coffee tables, cabinets and more resist categorization and draw inspiration from Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Baroque, Surrealist and modernist styles.
Tura moved through distinct phases in his career in terms of aesthetics, influences and finishes, rendering his life’s work exciting and diverse. Despite these phases, he held a singular devotion to one material: lacquered goatskin. Tura established a furniture production house in 1939 in Lombardy, and some of his early work focused on tables, decorative lamps and more. He later expanded to bar furnishings like rolling carts, cabinets and complementary barware accessories like ice buckets and cocktail shakers. The eccentric, gleaming and luxe surface of lacquered goatskin was a constant, along with eggshell, parchment and leather.
By the 1950s, Tura had begun to use hand-painted figural panels on the surface of cabinets, serveware (such as carafes) and other pieces. He even replicated famous works by artists like Monet and Bruegel the Elder and art from the Middle Ages, sometimes playfully embedding the paintings on cabinets shaped like oversize books. Even though he had a favored color palette of rich chocolate browns and deep emeralds, his style remained consistently hard to define.
Tura was unlike most of his Italian contemporaries but held a similar reverence for the nation’s traditional craftsmanship and artisanal techniques. He never followed the growing trend of mass-produced, industrial furniture and stuck to creating small, meticulously handcrafted collections. This principled choice means that today, a Tura piece is a rare and highly coveted collectible. The Tura firm continues to operate in Brianza, promoting Italian craftsmanship and the eclectic materials embraced by their namesake designer.
Find authentic vintage Aldo Tura furniture today on 1stDibs.
Finding the Right game-tables for You
Bring drama and duels of dexterity into your home with vintage, new and antique game tables for every kind of game.
Who doesn’t love a little competition? Historians estimate that early versions of games such as backgammon were played by members of ancient civilizations at least as far back as 3,000 B.C. Chess, which likely originated in India as a game called chaturanga, is a timeworn test of skills and strategy as well, and the modern era’s iteration of the game was enjoyed by nobles at least as early as the 16th century.
While the upper classes in Europe were among the only chess players who could afford the game’s decoratively carved ivory pieces, the game eventually became accessible to the general public. In the late 19th century, the game’s first official chess championships took place, a realm that eventually produced celebrated players such as avowed Eames Executive chair enthusiast Bobby Fischer. Today, antique chessboards have seen an uptick in demand owing to a successful Netflix series in 2020 called The Queen’s Gambit, which chronicles the life of fictional chess prodigy Beth Harmon.
Modern versions of chess boards and other home game tables may have evolved to accommodate the variety of games for which they’re used but are still versatile pieces of furniture. Not every card table with chairs is the ideal dining table, but you certainly don’t have to limit a game table to recreational use.
Antique trictrac tables, for example, were products of 18th-century France, wherein furniture makers created what looked like multipurpose neoclassical writing desks and card tables that when their tops were removed revealed trictrac, chess and checkers surfaces. Other game tables, in a complete commitment to fun, merely support good old-fashioned competition. Contemporary Ping-Pong (or table tennis) tables, which have origins in 1880s Victorian England, can be quite sophisticated in form and are made from a variety of materials today. A billiards table is an iconic piece for any game room or living room, but your pool table is really going to be used for only one thing, right?
Antique or new Regency-style game tables, mid-century modern tables or Art Deco–style card tables, perhaps fashioned from rosewood or mahogany, might be equipped with convertible tabletops to shift from meals to game time in a snap. If you prefer poker or opt for a card table topped with a checkerboard, convenient drawers and other compartments can be found in new and vintage game tables that fit poker chips or other types of game pieces perfectly.
Find a range of top-quality vintage and antique game tables on 1stDibs that can help you introduce a bit of class to every competition at home.