Lightweight, durable and versatile, antique and vintage rattan furniture is whatever one wants it to be: elegant or rustic, chic or workaday. Over time, rattan became the ultimate decorative-arts chameleon.
Few things inspire such extreme devotion as furnishings crafted from the versatile fibers of a tropical palm native to Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Indeed, rattan furniture has found legions of devotees over the years. The long-lasting natural medium, made popular in Great Britain and the United States during the Victorian era, is a master of disguise, able to mingle with a wide range of styles — when done the right way.
The use of rattan stretches from prehistory to IKEA. To clarify, rattan is not bamboo, which is a rigid, hollow reed. Stalks of rattan (whose name derives from the Malay rotan) are dense, steamable and bendable, which is why it lends itself to curvaceous designs and infinite creative uses in a way bamboo does not. Nor is rattan synonymous with wicker, which is a broader term for woven items — often made of rattan fibers but also of willow, other pliable reeds or even synthetic materials.
“Furniture made out of woven materials has occurred since the beginning of time and in every culture,” says interior designer and rattan aficionado Amanda Lindroth, noting that in earlier times, rattan furnishings were most often found in semi-outdoor settings like sunrooms and porches. Rattan pieces were welcomed indoors in the mid-20th century, and over time the medium has been put to use by giants of modernism such as Josef Hoffmann, Thonet, Jean-Michel Frank and Donald Deskey.
Find antique and vintage rattan chairs, sofas, coffee tables and other furniture on 1stDibs.
