This outer bark or cane peel is cut into thin strips to be used in cane seating. The pith or reed core is cut into flat, round or square sections for various uses. There are over two hundred known species of rattan palms, ranging over a wide area of tropic and sub-tropic areas. Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines being the chief exporting areas.
China is thought to be the originator of the cane seat going back several thousand years.
Various wicker and natural rush seating dates back to ancient Roman and Egyptian times. Willow was used for wicker furniture during the European Middle Ages. The China trade era brought cane chairs to the west. Crude rattan chairs first appeared in Portugal, France and Britain in the eighteenth century. Within a hundred years western craftmen mastered the caning art and with the advent of the Industrial Revolution cane furniture making began its hayday.