Drexel furniture catalog vintage series#

What does that mean for vintage dining room devotees like you? It means whether you’re shopping for an antique dining table and chairs in a Danish Modern style or a classic Duncan Phyfe style, you’re sure to find something that suits your vision.ĭivine Dining Room Style is Just a Click Away! Our in-house curation team then personally picks these dealers’ most chic and unique antique dining room sets to list for sale on the site. Every piece you see on the site has been hand-selected by our style-savvy buyers who scout the globe looking for the most exceptional vintage and antique dealers to partner with. Browse everything from colorful, lacquered Chinese Chippendale dining sets to modern Pedestal table and Tulip chair dining sets. The vintage Drexel furniture for sale on 1stDibs includes end tables designed by Edward Wormley, walnut side tables designed by Kipp Stewart and lots more.Looking for a dining set that will take you from casual weeknight meals to holiday fêtes like a pro? Start your search here! Our expertly-edited collection of vintage dining room sets is a secondhand hunter’s paradise. In 2014, the last Drexel Heritage plant, in Morganton, North Carolina, reportedly closed its doors. Plywood-Champion Papers bought Drexel Enterprises in 1968, and it became Drexel Heritage Furnishings. In the following decades, contracts with government agencies, hotels, schools and hospitals brought its high-quality furniture to a global audience.

Its acquisition of Southern Desk Company in 1960 bolstered its production of institutional furniture for dormitories, classrooms, churches and laboratories.

Drexel furniture catalog vintage series#

By 1957, the company that had started with a factory of 50 workers had 2,300 employees and was selling its furniture nationwide.ĭrexel underwent a series of name changes in its long history. With the manufacturer’s success - spurred by its embrace of advertising in home and garden magazines - it opened more factories in both North and South Carolina. It was then that the company began to expand, with several acquisitions of competitors in the 1950s, including Table Rock Furniture, the Heritage Furniture Co. It was managed by one of the original partners - Samuel Huffman - until 1935, at which time his son Robert O. In the 1970s, Drexel introduced high-end furniture in a Mediterranean style.ĭrexel changed hands and visions throughout the years. In the postwar era, Drexel embraced the clean lines of mid-century modernism with the Declaration collection designed by Stewart MacDougall and Kipp Stewart that featured elegant credenzas and more made in walnut, and the Profile and Projection collections designed with sculptural shapes by John Van Koert. Always ready to adapt to new customer demands, during World War II, Drexel built a sturdy desk designed especially for General Douglas MacArthur. Others replicated the ornate details of 18th-century chinoiserie or the embellishments of Queen Anne furniture. This included making pieces inspired by historic European furniture, like the popular French Provincial–style Touraine bedroom and dining group that borrowed its curves from Louis XV-era furniture. This focus on design, which few other furniture companies were committing to at the time, allowed Drexel to respond to a variety of new and traditional tastes.

One of Drexel’s early innovations was to employ staff designers, something the company initiated in the 1930s. The first offerings from Drexel Furniture were simple: a bed, washstand and bureau all crafted from native oakwood, sold as a bedroom suite for $14.50. In 1903, in the small town of Drexel in the foothills of North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, six partners came together to found a company that would become one of the country’s leading furniture producers. While vintage Drexel Furniture dining tables, dressers and other pieces remain highly desirable for enthusiasts of mid-century modern design, the manufacturer's story actually begins decades before its celebrated postwar-era Declaration line took shape.