Shopping for a vintage rattan sofa? Lightweight, durable and versatile, rattan furniture is whatever one wants it to be: elegant or rustic, chic or workaday.
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, antique and vintage 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.
For rattan dining chairs, armchairs, lounge chairs, indoor rattan sofas and other rattan seating, there is no shortage of popular search terms for interested parties — suggestions include Bielecky Brothers, New York–based makers of handcrafted rattan furniture since 1903; Milanese artist-designer Gabriella Crespi, who blended rattan with brass in sexy, sculptural pieces during the 1970s; and Peacock chairs, a catchall term for the numberless iterations of the beloved high-backed seat.
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.
Outdoor rattan sofas and other 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.
Postwar San Francisco brand McGuire, which became synonymous with the warm and relaxed feel of California design, is known to enthusiasts for its collectible rattan furniture, in particular its Director's X-Chair and Cracked Ice chair. The mid-century years also saw rattan sofas being created by the likes of Heywood-Wakefield, Ficks Reed and Franco Albini, a pioneering Italian designer who crafted rattan armchairs and more for Bonacina.
Find antique and vintage rattan sofas and other types of sofas on 1stDibs.
