This rattan recliner dates to c.1953. It is part of a set of furniture and furnishings designed for the living and dining room of the new house at 5 Camborne Rd that was a commission from the architect Ng Keng Siong by Lee Wah Bank for the family of its GM Kwok Chan-Kwan and his wife Tong Swee Ying. The recliner was made in a Chinese rattan shop on Victoria St, the site for many immigrant furniture makers particularly during the peak of the rattan industry in Singapore in the 1960s and 1970s. The rattan industry began to decline in the 1980s due to a shortage in supply of rattan and Singapore’s own movement towards a replacing labour intensive industries (like rattan) with high-technology industries and services. However, rattan furniture shops and rattan practitioners still exist in Singapore today.
