Minerva Box
This Italian “Minerva Box” is a stellar vegetable tanned leather from an artisanal tannery in Tuscany. Minerva Box leather is known for its pebbled texture and rich aroma as well as its ability to age gracefully.
Where is Minerva Box leather from?
Minerva Box leather is from the Badalassi Carlo tannery in San Miniato, Italy. San Miniato is the heart of the Tuscan leather district - home to the highest quality vegetable tanned leather operations in the world. Arguably the best of the best, Badalassi Carlo has been producing some of the finest and most unique leathers for over 40 years.
Badalassi Carlo is a member of the Genuine Italian Vegetable Tanned Leather Consortium, so the tannery, its leather, and methods are held to the highest of standards. These standards apply to the leather produced, the manner in which it is produced, and extends even to the business practices of the tannery. The Baldassi Carlo tannery also produces Minerva Liscio and Pueblo.
What is the finish of Minerva Box leather?
Minerva Box has a great pebble-grain, semi-gloss finish. Being a vegetable tanned leather, it is tanned with extracts of bark and liquored with animal fats inside wooden barrels. It is then dyed with aniline (transparent) colorings, air dried, and polished. Unlike most leathers tanned using plastic pigmentations, the use of aniline dyes preserves the nature of the leather and exalts the unique features of each and every hide. This is truly unique, as most tanneries, in their quest for uniformity, use much harsher processes to hide and disguise the individual nature of the hides. This leather has no secrets or tricks, everything on the hide is presented to be valued aesthetically and texturally.
What is the temper of Minerva Box leather?
Minerva Box leather has a wonderfully soft temper that will soften and become even more supple with use.
How does Minerva Box leather age?
Minerva Box, like all Italian veg-tans I offer, does not fear the passage of time, becoming more beautiful with shifts in tonalities, darkened by light, heat, and polished by abrasion. Minerva Box develops an honest personality unique to one’s relationship with it. Through use, it is not afraid to serve as a record of any and all encounters as it darkens and polishes each previous layer of scratches, markings, and indentations creating a warmth and richness of patina truly unequalled.