What do you think?
Rate this book
Rattan: A World of Elegance and Charm
Rattan furnishings evoke the glamour and laid back elegance of exotic beach houses as well as the informal beauty of plant filled garden rooms and sun dappled verandas.
Long fascinated with rattan's versatility, designer Lulu Lytle examines the enduring appeal of this sustainable tropical palm in A WORLD OF ELEGANCE AND CHARM. The first book in decades to examine the history and craftsmanship of rattan furniture, this insightful tome showcases rattan's appeal through archival images of beautiful interiors including Madeleine Castaing's winter garden in Paris, Michael Taylor's own Californian beach house, the Titanic's Café Parisian and the Billy Baldwin designed Mr. Kennedy's beauty salon in New York City. Rattan's many personalities are explored through its inclusion in settings as diverse as Impressionist paintings, flamboyant nightclubs and pared down contemporary drawing rooms.
A reflection of its inherent beauty and longevity, antique rattan furniture from the nineteenth century is highly collectible, as are rattan pieces created by giants of modern design such as Josef Hoffmann for Thonet, Josef Frank for Svenskt Tenn, Jean-Michel Frank for Ecart, Renzo Mongiardino for Bonacina, Arne Jacobsen for Sika, Paul Frankl and Donald Deskey. Rattan pieces have become iconic and highly prized, including Hiroomi Tahara's Wrap Sofa, Franca Helg's Primavera Chair, and the many iterations of the beloved Peacock Chair. RATTAN also highlights some of the many tastemakers who have embraced rattan--from Marella Agnelli, Babe Paley, and Cecil Beaton to leading interior designers including Jeffrey Bilhuber, Veere Grenney, Axel Vervoordt, and Jacques Grange.
Long fascinated with rattan's versatility, designer Lulu Lytle examines the enduring appeal of this sustainable tropical palm in A WORLD OF ELEGANCE AND CHARM. The first book in decades to examine the history and craftsmanship of rattan furniture, this insightful tome showcases rattan's appeal through archival images of beautiful interiors including Madeleine Castaing's winter garden in Paris, Michael Taylor's own Californian beach house, the Titanic's Café Parisian and the Billy Baldwin designed Mr. Kennedy's beauty salon in New York City. Rattan's many personalities are explored through its inclusion in settings as diverse as Impressionist paintings, flamboyant nightclubs and pared down contemporary drawing rooms.
A reflection of its inherent beauty and longevity, antique rattan furniture from the nineteenth century is highly collectible, as are rattan pieces created by giants of modern design such as Josef Hoffmann for Thonet, Josef Frank for Svenskt Tenn, Jean-Michel Frank for Ecart, Renzo Mongiardino for Bonacina, Arne Jacobsen for Sika, Paul Frankl and Donald Deskey. Rattan pieces have become iconic and highly prized, including Hiroomi Tahara's Wrap Sofa, Franca Helg's Primavera Chair, and the many iterations of the beloved Peacock Chair. RATTAN also highlights some of the many tastemakers who have embraced rattan--from Marella Agnelli, Babe Paley, and Cecil Beaton to leading interior designers including Jeffrey Bilhuber, Veere Grenney, Axel Vervoordt, and Jacques Grange.
- GenresInterior Design
224 pages, Hardcover
Published October 6, 2020
3 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 16, 2022
The photos in this - quite large-format - book are amazing - the way they are curated, how they represent different eras and capture the old world charm. There are paintings too, as rattan was a popular “prop” among painters. It really is a feast for the eyes and worth buying for the images alone. The captions give enough interesting information too.
Now the rest of the accompanying text however I found a bit dull at times. There was a lot of name-dropping and it is a good source for further research on designers and rattan manufacturers but it wasn’t engagingly written and too dense with facts and names. I also would have been happy if the colonial history aspect that is inseparable from that type of furniture, would’ve been covered more extensively as well. The most interesting bits for me were in the beginning about the rattan plant and how it became widely used in the furniture industry and also the very end had a step-by-step chapter on how rattan furniture is made nowadays.
Overall I’d highly recommend this beautiful book. To anyone who is interested in interior design, the history of furniture and well, Poirot as he always seems to be sitting in a rattan chair when abroad!
Now the rest of the accompanying text however I found a bit dull at times. There was a lot of name-dropping and it is a good source for further research on designers and rattan manufacturers but it wasn’t engagingly written and too dense with facts and names. I also would have been happy if the colonial history aspect that is inseparable from that type of furniture, would’ve been covered more extensively as well. The most interesting bits for me were in the beginning about the rattan plant and how it became widely used in the furniture industry and also the very end had a step-by-step chapter on how rattan furniture is made nowadays.
Overall I’d highly recommend this beautiful book. To anyone who is interested in interior design, the history of furniture and well, Poirot as he always seems to be sitting in a rattan chair when abroad!
April 3, 2021
Rattan is brilliant. It has everything you want in a design book: history, craftsmanship, styling, and gorgeous images. I’ve learned so much about rattan, like how it was used on the Titanic and how it grows faster than timber and can be harvested without deforestation. Regards to style, I particularly appreciated how Lulu Lytle included a variety of styles to give rattan its credit as a universal style material. I do wish the author had explored further into the effects on colonialism into rattan labor markets in places like Singapore. The author mentioned colonialism but it seemed glamorized throughout.
February 20, 2023
I found this beautifully designed and photographed book to be very interesting. As I come from a family of wicker work and rattan weavers, I was very interested in the history, current information and the homes using wicker to such a lovely extent. The interior and exterior shots were captivating, intriguing and charming. I did research on several locations that were featured in photographs. It made me curious about where all the family wicker is, and where I could better use and display it.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews