Percival Lafer Jacaranda
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Wood, Glass
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Sofas
Rosewood
Mid-20th Century Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
Jacaranda
Vintage 1970s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern End Tables
Jacaranda
Mid-20th Century Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Teak, Jacaranda, Rosewood
Vintage 1970s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Jacaranda
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Glass, Jacaranda
Mid-20th Century Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Sofas
Leather, Jacaranda
Vintage 1970s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
Suede, Jacaranda
Mid-20th Century Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Rosewood, Teak, Jacaranda
Mid-20th Century Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Rosewood, Teak, Jacaranda
Vintage 1970s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
Jacaranda
20th Century Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Sofas
Steel
Mid-20th Century Lounge Chairs
Suede, Jacaranda
Recent Sales
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Brutalist Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Glass, Jacaranda
Vintage 1950s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Armchairs
Leather, Jacaranda
Vintage 1950s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
Jacaranda
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Brutalist Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Rosewood
Vintage 1970s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Glass, Jacaranda
Vintage 1970s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
Leather, Jacaranda
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Glass, Rosewood
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
Jacaranda
Vintage 1950s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Living Room Sets
Slate
Vintage 1970s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Screens and Room Dividers
Jacaranda, Hardwood
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Rosewood, Jacaranda, Mahogany, Glass
Vintage 1970s Brazilian Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Copper, Chrome
Vintage 1970s Brazilian Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Copper, Chrome
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Jacaranda
Vintage 1970s Brazilian Modern Side Tables
Copper, Chrome
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Jacaranda, Rosewood, Teak
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
Leather, Jacaranda
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
Leather, Jacaranda
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Metal
Mid-20th Century Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Armchairs
Upholstery, Jacaranda
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Vintage 1970s Brazilian Brutalist Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Glass, Jacaranda, Mahogany, Rosewood
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Lounge Chairs
Chrome
Mid-20th Century Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
Leather, Jacaranda
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Jacaranda
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Desks
Wood
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Armchairs
Leather, Jacaranda
Mid-20th Century Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Acrylic, Formica, Jacaranda
Mid-20th Century Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Armchairs
Jacaranda
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
Leather, Wood
Vintage 1970s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Sofas
Leather, Jacaranda
Vintage 1970s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
Steel
Vintage 1970s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern End Tables
Copper
Vintage 1970s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
Chrome
Vintage 1970s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Glass, Jacaranda, Teak, Mahogany, Rosewood
Vintage 1970s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Center Tables
Glass, Wood, Jacaranda
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Stools
Jacaranda, Leather
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
Leather, Jacaranda
Vintage 1970s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern End Tables
Jacaranda
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Jacaranda, Rosewood, Teak
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Sofas
Wood, Leather
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Marble
Vintage 1970s Brazilian Lounge Chairs
Stainless Steel, Chrome
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
Mid-20th Century Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
Leather, Jacaranda
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
Leather, Jacaranda, Mahogany
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Rosewood, Jacaranda, Mahogany, Glass
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Jacaranda, Rosewood, Teak
Mid-20th Century Mid-Century Modern Sofas
Leather, Jacaranda
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Glass, Jacaranda, Wood
Vintage 1970s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Jacaranda, Rosewood, Teak
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Rosewood, Jacaranda, Mahogany, Teak, Glass
20th Century Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Sofas
Leather, Jacaranda
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
Leather, Jacaranda
Mid-20th Century Brazilian Brutalist Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Jacaranda, Mahogany, Rosewood, Glass
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Glass, Jacaranda, Rosewood, Teak
Vintage 1960s Lounge Chairs
Leather, Jacaranda
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Percival Lafer Jacaranda For Sale on 1stDibs
How Much is a Percival Lafer Jacaranda?
Percival Lafer for sale on 1stDibs
When it comes to mid-century furniture, the innovative work of the Brazilian Modernists has often been overlooked, including the designs of prolific maker Percival Lafer. Lafer studied architecture at São Paulo’s Universidade Mackenzie. After he graduated, his father passed away suddenly, leaving a furniture business that Lafer took over with his brothers.
Taking up the mantle, Lafer made the jump from architecture to furniture design in 1961, putting a focus on thoughtfully designed pieces available at affordable prices. That year, Lafer introduced his supremely popular MP-1 chair, a plush piece of furniture made with iron and wood that he has riffed on throughout his entire career.
The silhouettes of Lafer lounge chairs, armchairs and other seating were distinct from streamlined American and European mid-century modernism, taking on casual, puffed forms thanks to his use of polyurethane layers as padding. He combined such contemporary industrial materials with local natural ones, namely Brazilian hardwoods, which delighted customers around the world as Lafer became one of the country’s leading exporters of furniture.
Lafer has continued to design furniture throughout his career, branching into sofas, tables and lighting. He was at the forefront of mechanical furniture movements, debuting the MP-7 sofa, which could turn into a twin bed, in 1965, the first such piece on the market. One of his most intriguing projects was the MP Lafer, a two-seat fiberglass roadster designed to emulate British sports cars. Some 4,300 units were produced over its 16-year manufacturing run in the ’70s and ’80s, with several ending up in the collections of major car museums.
Still, Lafer’s biggest claim to fame is his seating, which he continues to design, drawing inspiration from modern shapes and local materials. In 2017, a retrospective of his work was organized as part of the São Paulo Design Weekend.
Find vintage Percival Lafer furniture for sale on 1stDibs.
On the Origins of Brazil
More often than not, vintage mid-century Brazilian furniture designs, with their gleaming wood, soft leathers and inviting shapes, share a sensuous, unique quality that distinguishes them from the more rectilinear output of American and Scandinavian makers of the same era.
Commencing in the 1940s and '50s, a group of architects and designers transformed the local cultural landscape in Brazil, merging the modernist vernacular popular in Europe and the United States with the South American country's traditional techniques and indigenous materials.
Key mid-century influencers on Brazilian furniture design include natives Oscar Niemeyer, Sergio Rodrigues and José Zanine Caldas as well as such European immigrants as Joaquim Tenreiro, Jean Gillon and Jorge Zalszupin. These creators frequently collaborated; for instance, Niemeyer, an internationally acclaimed architect, commissioned many of them to furnish his residential and institutional buildings.
The popularity of Brazilian modern furniture has made household names of these designers and other greats. Their particular brand of modernism is characterized by an émigré point of view (some were Lithuanian, German, Polish, Ukrainian, Portuguese, and Italian), a preference for highly figured indigenous Brazilian woods, a reverence for nature as an inspiration and an atelier or small-production mentality.
Hallmarks of Brazilian mid-century design include smooth, sculptural forms and the use of native woods like rosewood, jacaranda and pequi. The work of designers today exhibits many of the same qualities, though with a marked interest in exploring new materials (witness the Campana Brothers' stuffed-animal chairs) and an emphasis on looking inward rather than to other countries for inspiration.
Find a collection of vintage Brazilian furniture on 1stDibs that includes chairs, sofas, tables and more.













