Cause A Frockus

Vintage wicker furniture

Mar 4, 2015 | by Becky Oeltjenbruns

Admittedly, when I consider collecting a retro furniture piece I immediately think wood, metal, or even plastic. Yet I’ve been neglecting a critical genre in the history of decorating – vintage wicker furniture. The tradition of using plant fibers is nothing new (after all wicker furniture is a nod to the ancient craft of weaving). We have examples of wicker pieces from Sumerian, Egyptian, and Roman times. But the more recent golden age occurred in the Victorian era. Let’s explore a bit more into this organic approach – may it inspire your future collecting and decorating journeys!

As we mentioned, wicker is the result of weaving a natural material (like rattan, bamboo, reed, cane, or raffia) into a furniture arrangement. It’s not defined by the selected material – but rather the technique employed. The raw product is cut into workable-sized strips and soaked in water so they can be bent as needed (think the plywood method made popular in the mid-century). Out of our list of top materials rattan is considered the most durable, but it was replaced by reed in the mid-1850s due to supply issues, and later synthetic products in the 1920s.

The late 1800s were the formative years for the wicker furniture movement. To the reserved consumer, these pieces were seen as delightfully exotic and by the following decades this popularity fueled mass production. It was around this time that a grocer and avid proponent of recycling, Cyrus Wakefield, bought a bundle of rattan. This purchase was accidental, but as with so much in life – this fateful bit of commerce ended up determining his destiny. During these early years of international trade, rattan was used as structural support for cargo shipments. Wakefield made the most of this purchasing snafu by weaving the bundle into a rocking chair. And the rest is history (as they say).

Wakefield built an empire, but so did a rival – the Heywood Brothers. By 1897 they decided there was strength in unity and they merged, redefining the design aesthetic as they went. By the 1920s wicker furniture caught the eye of modernists, who found its flexibility conducive to the Art Deco style and its composition more hygienic (remember these modernists adored a clean line and an even cleaner environment).

This leads us to the chair pictured at the beginning of our feature – the MR20 chair. This lovely piece was designed by Lilly Reich and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1927 for an exhibit in Stuttgart. It’s fun to see the wicker technique graduate from its humble utilitarian roots to recognition as an artistic medium. So now that I’ve got you all excited about wicker – I mean, just look at how stunning it looks with the shiny chrome – let’s discuss how to take care of your finds.

You’ll want to keep the dust bunnies at bay with a soft cloth. But if you need to give it a good clean, take a soft brush soaked in warm water. Add some mild soap to this recipe to help remove dirt. If you’re in the market to refinish your wicker find, it’s best to find a trusted expert because it can be tricky to determine the raw material. If you guess the material wrong and try to strip the paint off, you may end up damaging your new treasure. Lastly, don’t fear the wobbly chair or table. You can re-glue the frame together, but I’d recommend seeking out a furniture expert to walk you through this process. Here are some additional tips and tricks to check out.

One of our top tips for vintage decorating is to incorporate nature. Wicker’s organic origins definitely help bring in that natural texture to any design scheme. Tell me, are you excited to incorporate wicker into your home aesthetic?

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Cause A Frockus would like to thank these additional resources: dwell, Apartment Therapy, Wicker Works, Wakefield Rattan Company, and public domain images.

For our readers: don’t you love learning about the random coincidences that created some of the amazing things we love and cherish? What’s your favorite story??

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