The Presidential Desk Set Made Behind Santa Croce
A presidential desk set does plain work. It holds a blotter, a pen, the paper waiting for a signature. According to a 2023 Boston Globe report, nearly every president since 1953 has signed documents on one made at a leather school in Florence, in rooms behind the Basilica of Santa Croce.
The school is the Scuola del Cuoio. It opened in 1950 to teach a trade to war orphans, and the founder’s family still runs it. The desk set is its best-known product. The story that explains the desk set begins with some workbenches in a hallway.
Benches in a Corridor
After the Second World War the Franciscan friars of Santa Croce had an empty dormitory and orphans who needed a trade. In 1950 they teamed up with two Florentine leatherworking families, the Gori and the Casini, who had worked the trade since the 1930s, according to the school’s own history page and the city’s historic-business listing. Marcello Gori, then 29 according to the newspaper Avvenire, ran the project with his brother-in-law, Silvano Casini.
Among the first students were boys from the Città dei Ragazzi, a boys’ town in Pisa. They learned to tell one leather from another, to cut by hand, and to make handbags, briefcases and small goods. The more gifted ones went on to desk sets and jewelry cases, and to gilding.
The benches went into the dormitory corridor. The building, the school says, was a Medici gift to the friars, designed by Michelozzo, and the corridor carries frescoes attributed to the school of Ghirlandaio. The historic-business listing adds that the workbenches, designed in the early 1950s, have not been changed.
A Colonel Makes an Introduction
The link to the White House runs through a marriage.
According to the Globe, Bill Davis, a U.S. Army colonel, married Tina Gori, Marcello’s sister. Davis knew Eisenhower. He guided the general around Florence and brought him to the school, and he introduced the Gori family to American military units, whom Marcello’s granddaughter, Beatrice Parri Gori, describes as the school’s first customers.
Once Eisenhower was president, he had an idea. The Globe reports that he proposed a customized desk set for the presidency as a way of helping the school. “We became official suppliers to the White House,” Filippo Parri Gori, Marcello’s grandson, is quoted as saying.
The accounts differ on dates. The Globe’s text places Oval Office use in 1953, while a photo caption in the same piece points to 1952. On how long the line ran, Permanent Style, after a 2015 visit, was told that presidents used the sets until Bill Clinton, while Avvenire says the tradition continued through Barack Obama. The early 1950s start is consistent across sources. The end date is not settled by anything this post could read.
What Goes Into the Set
Goatskin, not lambskin. The Globe says goatskin takes gold better.
Each set is gilded with the president’s initials in gold, and a reproduction sits on display at the school. The Globe names Giuseppe Faienza as the school’s master gilder. The school’s current product pages describe hand-applied gilding with 24-karat gold leaf, and its history page says early students with a gift for the work learned gilding on desk sets and jewelry cases.
The Flood of 1966 and What Came After
On 4 November 1966, after several days of heavy rain, the Arno flooded Florence. Mud and debris hit the Santa Croce district hardest. The school and the Basilica were submerged, and business stopped for almost a year, according to the school’s history page. The family and staff then got it running again.
Two other entries on that page belong beside the flood. At the end of the 1950s, in agreement with the Ministry of Justice, the school began teaching classes inside a prison, and the page says Marcello Gori received a medal for the re-education of prisoners. In 1968 Italy’s President Saragat named him Cavaliere del Lavoro, a state honor for lifetime work in business.
Handed to the Daughters
Gori and Casini both died in 2003. Gori’s daughters, Laura, Francesca and Barbara, took over, according to the school’s family page. Francesca makes a line of hand-stitched, one-of-a-kind bags. Three grandchildren now work in the business. Il Sole 24 Ore lists Tommaso Melani Gori as a board member, Filippo Parri Gori as production manager, responsible for cutting the fine leathers, and Beatrice Parri Gori as sales manager and communications director.
The same paper reports a 2024 turnover of €10 million, the highest in the company’s history and up 25 percent, with 35 staff and some customers waiting up to five months for an order. Many of those customers are international, especially American. The headcount has moved over time: Permanent Style counted 12 full-time workers and three teachers in 2015.
Asked in a National Catholic Register profile what explains the school’s success, Beatrice Parri Gori answered, “I believe the secret to Scuola del Cuoio’s success is teamwork.”
Seventy-Five Years, and a Foundation
In May 2022 the family created the Marcello Gori Foundation, with Barbara Gori as president, Avvenire reports. The school’s history page says it trains six young people a year in leather making. Avvenire also quotes Marcello Gori’s line that a person rich in knowledge who does not pass it on stays poor forever.
For the 75th year, The Florentine and Il Sole 24 Ore report nine scholarships for young people proposed through Florence social workers and the Artemisia association. The school also financed the restoration of the facades and roofs on one side of Michelozzo’s courtyard inside the Santa Croce complex. And it published a 194-page book, Scuola del Cuoio. Mani e cuore: la tradizione della Famiglia Gori, by the journalist Eva Desiderio.
Seeing It for Yourself
The school sits at Via San Giuseppe 5R, in the Santa Croce district. Its own site lists courses, workshops and visits; hours and prices change, so check with the school before planning a trip.
Anyone who has waited on a made-to-order piece will recognize the arrangement. A handmade bag at the school can take up to five months. Marcellino NY works on the same terms: a briefcase is made to order, and the wait is part of the arrangement. The bespoke commission process, the old split between cordwainers and saddlers and the Tuscan vegetable-tanning tradition all sit behind the same idea. Things made slowly stay in use longer, as a Marcellino briefcase is meant to.
The benches are still in the corridor. The gilding is still done by hand. Who sits at the desk is somebody else’s decision.
At a glance
| Founded | 1950, by Marcello Gori and Silvano Casini with the Franciscan friars of Santa Croce |
| Address | Via San Giuseppe 5R, Florence |
| Run by | Gori’s three daughters and three grandchildren |
| Staff | 35 (Il Sole 24 Ore, October 2025) |
| 2024 turnover | €10 million, up 25 percent (Il Sole 24 Ore) |
| Wait for a handmade bag | Up to five months (The Florentine) |
| Foundation | Marcello Gori Foundation, created May 2022 |
Sources
- The leather school in Florence that owes a debt to America’s 34th president — Francesco Bertolucci, The Boston Globe, 13 January 2023
- La scuola del cuoio: a Firenze dal 1950 combatte l’emarginazione — Andrea Fagioli, Avvenire, November 2022
- The Scuola del Cuoio di Firenze celebrates 75 years of craftsmanship and caring for people — Chiara Beghelli, Il Sole 24 Ore, 7 October 2025 (English page is a machine translation of the Italian original)
- Scuola del Cuoio: 75 years of community service — The Florentine, 3 December 2025
- Catholic Business Profile: Scuola del Cuoio — Solène Tadié, National Catholic Register, 30 March 2025
- Scuola del Cuoio, Florence — Permanent Style, 3 April 2015
- Scuola del Cuoio, historic business listing — Destination Florence
- History and Family — Scuola del Cuoio, official site
