Walter Lamb Settees
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.
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Walter Lamb Settees
Bronze
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Walter Lamb Settees
Copper
1980s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Walter Lamb Settees
Hardwood
1970s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Walter Lamb Settees
Aluminum
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Walter Lamb Settees
Rattan
19th Century French Victorian Antique Walter Lamb Settees
Giltwood
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Walter Lamb Settees
Metal
1940s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Walter Lamb Settees
Bronze
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Walter Lamb Settees
Aluminum
21st Century and Contemporary North American Modern Walter Lamb Settees
Aluminum
1890s French Art Nouveau Antique Walter Lamb Settees
Wrought Iron
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Walter Lamb Settees
Bronze
Mid-20th Century French Walter Lamb Settees
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Walter Lamb Settees
Bronze
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Walter Lamb Settees
Copper
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Walter Lamb Settees
Bronze
