I was out to an estate purchase of a large George Nelson executive desk.
The sales agent had sold most everything to the neighbors who were given first dibs on the contents of house. To my amazement a small group of Walter Lamb outdoor furniture was left behind, which i excitedly purchased for a modest sum.
I love the designs but cant find much about the design career of Walter Lamb, aside from him designing outdoor bronze furniture produced by Brown Jordan from 40's-50's.
Would anybody have any information about this designer and his design work?
Thanks!
Mario
We have some Walter Lamb pieces in our collection, and have sold some in the past (kinda' wish we had hung on to those as well). My understanding is that Walter Lamb was in Hawaii immediately after WWII and was involved in the salvage effort in Pearl Harbor. From materials reclaimed from sunken ships, (copper and bronze tubing, flagline) he designed some pieces of indoor/outdoor furniture which proved to be rather successful and were put into production by Brown Jordan.
I think they were produced into the 1960s and some have recently been reissued (in brass unfortunately, not copper or bronze). Brown Jordan offered the designs in copper or bronze with your choice of cotton or nylon flagline, depending on the conditions of the climate where you live.
I have the original receipts and sales brochure that came with a dozen pieces we bought from a vintage estate which were in mint condition. We got a couple of the rare plant stands as well as a pair of rockers.
They are all very elegant, but one of my favorite designs is the "Waikiki rocking chaise". I think there is a nice article in an issue of Modernism magazine that came out when there was a show of Lamb's work at R 20th Century gallery back around 2002.
Your pieces appear to be copper from the green patina. They should not be difficult to clean or restore. Nice find.
Thank You Pegboard!
Thats great information.
I think your right about those chairs being copper with cord.
We have three other pieces that are thinner in tube gauge and have plastic cording that i was told was original.
These designs display sophistication that lead me to believe that Walt must have a larger body of designs out there somewhere.......maybe.
Kipp Stewart
Are you sure those pieces you found at the sale aren't designed by Kipp Stewart?
http://www.artnet.com/artists/lotdetailpage.aspx?lot_id=B75CFE11B7994E1B...
Not Kipp Stewart
... early production Walter Lamb.
I'm not even convinced of the Kipp Stewart attribution for those lounge chairs with the oval frames. Wright ran a pair of those chairs attributed to Walter Lamb, then were told they were by Kipp Stewart so the listing was changed.
They later ran an identical pair as Walter Lamb. Not that that means a great deal or is any evidence, however I think IF Kipp Stewart did some outdoor furniture like this it should be noted that the designs are HIGHLY derivative of Walter Lamb's work.
There are also designs by Walter Lamb that I've only seen in the catalogue I have.
http://www.wright20.com/auctions/view_search/RJN/F569/451/LA/kipp/AHZC
http://www.wright20.com/auctions/view_search/RJN/F569/452/LA/kipp/AHZC
http://www.wright20.com/auctions/view_search/KF2W/KF2Z/253/LA/walter_Lam...
http://www.wright20.com/auctions/view_search/KF2W/KF2Z/249/LA/walter_Lam...
Walter Lamb - how to sell
Hi,
Any suggestions on how to sell Walter Lamb? I don't really want to put this on EBay. I have 15 chairs and 3 tables that are at least 60-70 years old. My stepfather replaced the rotted cording with plastic line in the early 1970s and every chair has been fabulous since. Easy to wash. I have 5 low chairs, 4 dining chairs with arms and 6 dining chairs without arms. And 3 tables. I've figured I have about $45K worth of this and I don't have the large lanai my mother did to hold it all. So I need to sell it. I had a Realtor say he would pay $3K for it. Then I started researching on line. I have at least $30-$40K in chairs alone!
Would you put it on EBay? I looked and the stuff on there is new Brown n Jordan that doesn't look like what I have. I have heavy bronze and what they are showing looks like brass. Looks cheap to me. I'd attach photos, but you can't seem to do that here. Thanks for your thoughts. Appreciate it.
Aloha.
Aloha from Cali
Hi, I just acquired 2 Walter lamb arm chairs that my brother has had for years and was looking for value also. It's hard to judge and you cant go by 1stdibs prices becuse I saw a Walter Lamb arm chair and ottoman on ebay that didn't sell for $1500. 1stdibs has the same listed for double. I'm from Kona so I like the history and plan to keep them in my Atrium. Maybe contact a dealer and see if you can consign them? What Island are you on? Might have better luck selling them on the mainland but shipping will be expensive, I know first hand. Good luck
OK then...
... now I am convinced of the attribution. Though it does not change my opinion that the Stewart pieces are derivative of Lamb's designs (which I think are more elegant, just compare the two chaise lounges).
Not to deride Kipp Stewart, they are perfectly nice and they may have been offered at a time when Brown Jordan had stopped producing the Lamb designs.
It's interesting that they are so similar that if you do a google image search the Stewart design is frequently attributed to Walter Lamb and that there have been misattributions made by major auction houses.
While I favor the Lamb designs for their fluid lines, highly innovative use of materials (originally recycled to boot!) and the fact that they pre-date the Stewart designs by almost 3 decades, I think both designers did a great job. Outdoor furniture is often poorly designed. Notice how they both employ sled bases which are better since they distribute weight over a more broad surface and won't sink in grass, dirt or sand like a 4 legged chair will. Add the fact that they are made of copper or bonze (which means that they won't rust and won't stain your patio or deck), have seats and backs of flagline which flexes to fit the body and will not get too hot in the sun, and you have some wonderful outdoor furniture.
Couple things I did notice in the Terra ad... it says they were sold with cotton cording. Brown Jordan offered the Lamb pieces in cotton or nylon depending on your climate (cotton will rot in a humid locale). Also I found it amusing that they state it is made of SOLID tubular bronze. I know they meant it is not just plated in bronze, but isn't tubular the opposite of solid? Must be like a hollow SOLID chocolate bunny at easter!
http://www.wright20.com/auctions/view_search/FG6J/F58G/193/LA/chaise/FG60
Discrepancies
I was not aware of Walter Lamb before perusing this thread here, but since it's what I do I went and did a quick trawl for period references and it seems that the available online text about Walter Lamb's designs got the facts wrong...
According to the NY Times May 2, 1951 page 34 in an article titled "For the Home: Furnishings Cited for Good Design"
"Among the few new designs shown here were some bronze outdoor chairs designed by Walter Lamb of Honolulu and made there. These had interesting shapes, a greenish patina, and seats of light natural leather."
It's important to note here that in 1951 Walter Lamb was still producing his furniture out of Honolulu, it is not being manufactured by Brown Jordan.
A search of Google Patents yielded a design patent (D168270) filed by Walter F. Lamb for a Chaise Lounge on Jan 12, 1952. This would seem to be the Patent which was later sold to Brown Jordan. Which means that they could not have taken assignment of the patent prior to November 25, 1952 when the design patent was granted.
Honestly the earliest direct reference for Walter Lamb's designs being manufactured by Brown Jordan is in the 1960 catalog :-). Later in the 60's there are several references to Brown Jordan manufacturing the Lamb furniture.
More good info
There appears to be shockingly little known about Walter Lamb and he seems to only be known for the outdoor furniture designs. I just looked up the article in the Summer 2002 issue of Modernism magazine.
As I mentioned before the article coincided with the exhibit "Outside" at R 20th Century. In the Modernism piece it's noted that "next to nothing is known of his life or career" and there is info and dates that may in fact be incorrect. They tell of Lamb's efforts to reclaim materials from sunken naval ships in Pearl Harbor and they date his designs to the 1940s. They indicate that Brown Jordan was founded in 1945 and began producing Lamb's designs in the 1950s. They say that Brown Jordan produced them until the 1970s and cite the fact that they were "emulated and reinterpreted" by other companies (Kipp Stewart and Terra?) as perhaps the reason they ceased production (I suspect that lackluster sales and the cost of materials is more likely the real reason).
I think it's pretty clear that the Lamb designs predate those by Kipp Stewart, but what has been left out of the conversation thus far is the relationship between the Lamb designs and the designs of Van Kepple Green which use tubular steel and flagline. I'm quite curious which came first and if one possibly influenced the other. I think that prior to Brown Jordan assuming production of the Lamb designs, they were pretty obscure while the VKG designs were well publicized as they were often featured in Arts and Architecture and used in a number of the Case Study houses.
It's great to find period references to these designs, but even they are prone to error. in the quote "Among the few new designs shown here were some bronze outdoor chairs designed by Walter Lamb of Honolulu and made there. These had interesting shapes, a greenish patina, and seats of light natural leather." note that they say the chairs had a "greenish" patina. That would clearly indicate that the chairs were copper not bronze. From what I can tell, only Walter Lamb used copper. The Kipp Stewart pieces are bronze and the VKG designs are steel.
http://www.r20thcentury.com/exhibition_detail.cfm?id=33&extoGet=all&desi...
Robert Lewis/Walter Lamb/ Kipp Stewart
Walter Lamb traced the arms of Robert Lewis's furniture. You know the copper/or steel tubed outdoor furniture produced from 1932-1952. Walter used marine bronze tubing jacketed on steel tube which is why it explodes if frozen or if water gets in and the steel tube rusts and expands. Robert Lewis used a double C stretcher bar Walter uses an H. Brown Jordan only offered marine bronze jacketed tube framing no copper. Copper or steel frames that look similar to Lamb are usually Robert Lewis. Kipp Stewart worked making Walter Lamb furniture at the Brown Jordan plant during college and was certainly influenced but created his own original designs for Terra, The Omega Chaise, the oval Lounge and those very cool drop curve arm chairs TFTM has a lot of Kipp Stewart up on their 1stdibs site listed as Walter Lamb, you would think LA dealers would know their outdoor furniture evidently not. Hope this clarifies the Robert Lewis (the original CA outdoor modernist furniture maker) Walter Lamb (stole from Robert Lewis) Kipp Stewart ( worked on Lamb and created his own interpretation)
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