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Walter Lamb Sofas

American

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.

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Creator: Walter Lamb
Walter Lamb Bronze Three-Seater Sofa for Brown Jordan, 1950s
Walter Lamb Bronze Three-Seater Sofa for Brown Jordan, 1950s

Walter Lamb Bronze Three-Seater Sofa for Brown Jordan, 1950s

By Brown Jordan, Walter Lamb

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Bronze three seater sofa by Walter Lamb for Brown Jordan. The sofa has a beautiful curved construction in tubular bronze with a patinated verdigris finish. The sofa has two rounded supports at the middle of the sofa and a stretcher that runs the length of the piece. The arm rests carry the same curved detail with double bronze tubing. This sofa retains its original vinyl cording...

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1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Walter Lamb Sofas

Materials

Bronze

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Walter Lamb sofas for sale on 1stDibs.

Walter Lamb sofas are available for sale on 1stDibs. These distinctive items are frequently made of metal and are designed with extraordinary care. There are many options to choose from in our collection of Walter Lamb sofas, although gold editions of this piece are particularly popular. Many of the original sofas by Walter Lamb were created in the mid-century modern style in united states during the 1950s. If you’re looking for additional options, many customers also consider sofas by Russell Woodard, Woodard Furniture Co., and Edward Wormley. Prices for Walter Lamb sofas can differ depending upon size, time period and other attributes — on 1stDibs, these items begin at $35,000 and can go as high as $35,000, while a piece like these, on average, fetch $35,000.