Walter Lamb Furniture
Forward-looking architect Walter Lamb is best known for his revolutionary and widely loved patio furniture — he salvaged metal tubing from sunken ships in Pearl Harbor in the 1940s to create alluring chaise longues and other pieces for the backyard. His vintage furniture designs have been adorning patios worldwide for almost a century.
Trained as an architect at the University of California Berkeley campus, Lamb found himself in Hawaii during the 1940s. This period was a time of growth for furniture designers and manufacturers, as veterans were returning to the United States, getting married and starting families. These folks needed practical furniture for their new homes, and as the movement we now call mid-century modern took shape, imaginative architects and furniture makers would fill that need. Lamb was one such innovator.
Lamb worked the shaped tubing and fittings he’d gathered from battleship wreckage into proper frames and wrapped the structures in marine-grade cotton cording to create comfortable, element-proof outdoor furniture. Today his patio furniture has an esteemed place in the history of design. In fact, furniture enthusiasts are eager to restore and collect his iconic aged furniture rather than purchase reproductions.
Postwar California would become reputable as a manufacturing center for versatile furniture intended for both indoor and outdoor spaces. Seating, tables and other items — often made with rattan — produced by the likes of McGuire and Brown Jordan became a defining feature of organic modern living, a style that still characterizes many California interiors and influences innumerable design firms. Pasadena’s then-new Brown Jordan picked up Lamb’s designs, which eventually included dining tables, side tables and coffee and cocktail tables. And along with these furnishings, Lamb's sculptural vintage seating — his curvaceous lounge chairs and armchairs with cotton cord seats — while perfect for your fire pit, shouldn’t be relegated to outdoors-only settings.
Lamb received much acclaim for his work. The Museum of Modern Art in New York recognized his 1940s-era outdoor furniture for Brown Jordan with a design award.
On 1stDibs, find a noteworthy collection of vintage Walter Lamb furniture.
1960s American Vintage Walter Lamb Furniture
Bronze
1960s American Vintage Walter Lamb Furniture
Copper
2010s American Modern Walter Lamb Furniture
Lambskin
2010s American Modern Walter Lamb Furniture
Wool, Lambskin
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Walter Lamb Furniture
Bronze
1960s American Hollywood Regency Vintage Walter Lamb Furniture
Faux Fur
1940s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Walter Lamb Furniture
Bronze
2010s German Walter Lamb Furniture
Leather
2010s American Modern Walter Lamb Furniture
Metal
2010s American Modern Walter Lamb Furniture
Mahogany
1920s French Napoleon III Vintage Walter Lamb Furniture
Silk, Giltwood
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Walter Lamb Furniture
Bronze
2010s Dutch Organic Modern Walter Lamb Furniture
Rope
21st Century and Contemporary American Walter Lamb Furniture
Wood
