Sonnenleder Vide-poche square

Empty pocket, full bowl - this is how the function of this storage bowl can be briefly summarized (French vider: empty, poche: pocket, usually of clothing), which is also referred to as Gentleman’ s Tray (presumably because the gentleman of yesteryear did not have a handbag for his small everyday companions). Although the shell preferably takes, as the name suggests, the contents of pants, coat or jacket pocket - change, keys, phone - and keeps everything ready to hand, for example, in the hallway or entrance area. Of course, this requires a certain amount of discipline, because first everything has to find its way into the bowl. Once pocket emptying is established, however, it saves a lot of searching ... But the Vide-poche can also be used for all other small items that need an ancestral place when they are not needed, such as on the desk or dining room table, in the kitchen or in the bathroom.

Classically, such pocket emptiers were made of porcelain. Our Vide-poche manufactures Sonnenleder from supple, pit-tanned cowhide - no matter how vigorously you empty your pockets, the leather ensures that the small parts can be put down without loud porcelain clattering (definitely an advantage late at night when no one should be startled out of their sleep). The strong leather, optionally in the typical reddish hue of pit-tanned leather or barrel-dyed black, is double-laid and sewn with neatly turned-in edges. Color-matched leather-covered rivets hold the Vide-poche in a cupped shape. Typical of the material, the leather also takes on an individual patina over time, which will be particularly evident in the natural colored leather.

Sonnenleder in Bodman-Ludwigshafen on Lake Constance in the Hegau region stands for consistently purposeful, pure design. The meticulously working company maintains the most traditional method of leather production: pit tanning. Solely hides from southern German cattle find their way into the pits of the company. The tanning agents used by Sonnenleder contain, for the most part, decoctions from bark, roots and fruits. The hides undergo the tanning process in twelve pits with tanning broths slightly rising in concentration; the tanning agents transform the protein fibres of the hides into leather fibres in six to twelve weeks. In the next step, the tanned, then air-dried hides get a fatliquoring finish in a rotating barrel; the composition of the high-quality grease is a well-kept secret recipe. The finished leather thus has a characteristic, slightly light brown-reddish hue (hence the term “red-tanned”), which looks different in each piece. Day-to-day use and exposure to the elements change the shade and result in a patina, a form of natural protection on the surface. Eventually, the leather gains an unmistakable appearance over time. Even the thoroughly imbued leather acquires a shiny patina with use.