"Lotus Chair" by Miller Yee Fong

Known for traditional Chinese designs with a California style twist, furniture manufacturer Tropi-Cal elevated rattan and wicker furnishings to modern and timeless interior art from the 1950s to 1970s.

The company was founded in 1954 by entrepreneur and designer Danny Ho Fong who was born in China in 1915 and moved to the California coast in 1936. His son, Miller Yee Fong, was born in Los Angeles in 1942 and started an architecture practice after graduating from the University of Southern California in 1964. He would later join his father to become Tropi-Cal’s principal designer.

In the 1960s and throughout the 1970s, Tropi-Cal was popular nationwide for its sleek, mid-century modern designs. They combined natural materials with a unique, refined style. The furniture — from high-backed, cane dining room chairs and triangular-based rattan dining tables, to comfortable, basket-weave club chairs — was lightweight, functional and sculptural in form. 

Tropi-Cal’s furniture garnered considerable critical acclaim with several pieces now in museum collections. The Wave lounge chair, designed by Danny Ho Fong in 1966, is in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Miller Yee Fong’s Lotus chair, designed in 1968, is in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Today, Tropi-Cal is known as Fong Brothers Company. It continues the firm’s legacy of producing high-quality, traditional furniture with modern, sophisticated designs. 

On 1stDibs, discover a range of vintage Tropi-Cal seating, tables and more.