Chess and Italian Design

Here on Top eBay Chess Items by Price (March 2010), when you say 'chess table', you mean something like the item featured in Chess with Rare Woods (February 2017). The item pictured below was titled 'Aldo Tura 1950, Three Nesting Tables Goatskin, Decorated with Chess Figures'. It sold for US $700.00, 'Buy It Now'.

The description said,

Set of three nesting tables, Aldo Tura, Italy, 1950. In high lacquered goatskin, the wooden frame covered with tobacco brown dyed parchment. Decorated with different golden chess figures.

Measurement biggest table: depth 12 inch, width 20 inch, height 16 inch. 70+ years old. Has some wear.

Who was Aldo Tura? The page Aldo Tura (artnet.com; Italian, 1909–1963) explained,

Aldo Tura was an Italian furniture designer best known for his mid-century tables and lamps. Combining his interest in Art Deco and Art Nouveau with low-slung minimalist design of the 1940s and 50s, he often utilized unusual materials like parchment, egg shell, and goatskin, frequently employing wheels and casters in his designs.

Born in 1909, Tura began manufacturing his signature furniture in the 1930s, focusing on limited production of handcrafted designs produced within the confines of traditional craftsmanship. Tura died 1963, and has earned the moniker "the master of parchment" for his use of the material.

It turns out that he designed a number of tables with a chess motif. See Tura Chess - For Sale on 1stDibs (1stdibs.com) for examples. A section of that page titled, 'Aldo Tura Biography and Important Works', starts, 'One of the most enigmatic and polarizing figures to emerge in Italian design...'