Drexel Furniture Company was founded in 1903 in Drexel, North Carolina, and grew into a maker of medium- and upper-priced bedroom, dining and living room furniture in period, provincial and modern styles. After buying Heritage Furniture in the 1950s it became Drexel Heritage in 1968; its best-known mid-century lines include Precedent, Profile and Declaration.
Drexel Furniture Company is founded in Drexel, North Carolina, by Samuel Huffman and five other investors with $14,000.[1][2][8]
Robert O. Huffman becomes president and moves the company from low-priced furniture towards the medium-price market, backed by national advertising.[1][2]
Edward Wormley designs the Precedent collection for Drexel.[26][27]
Drexel buys Table Rock Furniture and Heritage Furniture (accounts date the Heritage purchase to 1951 or January 1957).[1][2]
Drexel introduces Profile, designed by the silver designer John Van Koert.[9][25]
The parent company takes the name Drexel Enterprises; 1960s catalogues describe Drexel Furniture Company as a division of it.[2][11][21]
U.S. Plywood-Champion Papers buys the company, and the furniture business becomes Drexel Heritage Furnishings.[1][2]
Drexel Heritage is sold to Dominick International in 1977 and to Masco in 1986.[1][2]
The last Drexel Heritage factory, in Morganton, North Carolina, closes.[3][29]
Heritage Home Group, the brand's owner, files for bankruptcy and the Drexel name passes to new owners.[2][3]
Nothing by Drexel is in the studio right now. Tell Kate what you need and she will look for one.
Drexel started out making oak dressers, washstands and chiffoniers at the low end of the market. From the mid-1930s it moved into medium-priced furniture, and by the 1950s it sold in the middle and upper price brackets, with complete bedroom, dining room and living room groups and its own upholstery. A separate side of the business made institutional furniture for libraries, dormitories, hospitals, churches and offices.
Drexel worked across many styles at once. Its catalogues show 18th-century English and American reproductions in mahogany and cherry, French and Italian provincial, Spanish and Mediterranean groups in pecan, Early American, and contemporary walnut lines. Most collections were sold open stock, so a buyer could add pieces over the years.
The catalogues are explicit about construction: show surfaces such as drawer fronts, tops and end panels are veneer (walnut, pecan, cherry, mahogany or burl), while legs, posts, rails and mouldings are solid pecan, mahogany or other hardwood. Drawers are dovetailed. Drexel defended veneer in its own literature as stronger and less likely to split than solid boards.[1][2][8][9][11][13][18][21][22]
A modern line Wormley designed for Drexel while he was also working for Dunbar, described by dealers as a simplified take on Georgian furniture. Surviving pieces include desks, dressers, side tables and lounge chairs, some in pale silver elm.[26][27]
Drexel's 1957 catalogue presents Profile as an open-stock walnut collection with curved fronts and silver-plated hardware, designed by the silver designer John Van Koert. It covered bedroom, dining and living room pieces, including a lady's desk with a tambour top and spindle-legged tables, with style numbers prefixed K.[9][25]
Drexel's 1958 catalogue sells Sirocco as a Mediterranean-flavoured walnut group of more than 50 pieces, with brushed copper pulls and louvered doors, style numbers prefixed J.[10]
Simple walnut furniture inspired by Shaker and New England pieces, in oiled walnut veneer and solid walnut with rosewood accents. Each case piece was offered with either white porcelain pulls or brass-and-walnut pulls, and the two versions carry different style numbers. The 1964 catalogue includes bedroom, dining and living room pieces and modular wall units; dealers date the line from the late 1950s through the 1960s.[6][11][12][25]
Dealers credit Parallel to Barney Flagg and describe it as a walnut line, some pieces with cane, made in the late 1950s and 1960s.[6][25]
A Georgian and Sheraton style group in mahogany with Duncan Phyfe chairs. It appears in Drexel's 1939 catalogue and was still offered in 1964 with solid mahogany parts and mahogany veneers.[8][21]
A large Spanish and Mediterranean collection of more than 75 pieces in pecan veneers with solid pecan framing, with carved block fronts, deep mouldings and a hooded guerite chair. Catalogues for it survive from 1963, 1965 and 1969.[13][14]
Drexel's 1964 catalogue shows Touraine as French-style furniture in carved walnut, with bedroom pieces also offered in an antique gold and white finish.[15]
A collection drawing on Sheraton, Hepplewhite, Adam, Directoire and Empire designs, in mahogany with walnut burl overlays and some marble tops, according to Drexel's 1964 catalogue.[16]
A contemporary group with Persian and Far Eastern touches, in butternut with maple burl accents, solid pecan structure and antique-brass hardware, per the 1964 catalogue.[17]
A Regency and Directoire inspired line in figured walnut veneers with pecan legs and plinth bases, also sold in a painted parchment finish.[18]
A contemporary line using Asian motifs, in walnut veneers and solid pecan with satin brass pulls.[19]
Louis XV and French provincial forms in greyed walnut veneers and pecan, with a custom hand-painted option.[20]
A traditional collection mixing Palladian, Chippendale and Regency details, in cherry veneers and solid mahogany.[30]
A modern group in pin-knotty walnut and paldao veneers with parquet patterns and andiroba solids, finished a light blond brown.[22]
A Spanish-style group with deeply moulded panels in pin-knotty walnut veneers on pecan and hardwood solids, sold in an antique brown or a light beige finish.[23]
Drexel Heritage's 1977 Et Cetera supplement lists credenzas, chests, stereo and bar cabinets and an octagonal dining table in mandarin fruitwood or black lacquer, many with chinoiserie decoration and brass corner plates.[24]
A six-drawer walnut dresser with a slatted centre detail was sold as part of a Drexel County Station collection. The line does not appear in published Drexel catalogues or histories.
$395 to $1,350
Drexel Furniture Company began in 1903 in Drexel, North Carolina. Samuel Huffman and five other men put $14,000 into it. Huffman's son, Robert O. Huffman, became president in 1935. The company grew by buying other makers, among them Table Rock Furniture in 1951 and Heritage Furniture in the 1950s (accounts date the Heritage purchase to 1951 or 1957). The parent company later took the name Drexel Enterprises. In 1968 U.S. Plywood-Champion Papers bought it, and the furniture business became Drexel Heritage Furnishings. It was sold to Dominick International in 1977 and to Masco in 1986, and changed hands again after that. A later owner, Heritage Home Group, filed for bankruptcy in 2018, and the Drexel name has since passed to new owners.[1]–[7][31]
The Dunbar designer created Drexel's Precedent collection in 1947.[26][27]
A silver designer by background; Drexel's 1957 catalogue credits him with Profile.[9][25]
California designers who often worked as a pair; Drexel's Declaration catalogue credits the line to both.[11][25][28]
Drexel's 1964 catalogues credit them with Via Veneto, Eastrend and French Accent.[18]–[20]
Mostly not in the way the phrase suggests. Drexel's catalogues describe veneers on drawer fronts, tops and end panels, with solid pecan, walnut, mahogany or other hardwood for legs, posts, rails and mouldings. Drexel presented its bonded veneer as stronger and less prone to splitting than solid boards.[11][13][18][22]
Look for a stamped month and year inside a drawer or on the back, which may read backwards. If there is none, check whether the label says Drexel or Drexel Heritage (the name changed in 1968), note the line name and style number, and compare them with dated Drexel catalogues.[1][4][5][7][11]
Not as the original manufacturer. The last Drexel Heritage plant closed in 2014, and the brand's owner, Heritage Home Group, filed for bankruptcy in 2018, after which the Drexel name was sold to new owners.[2][3][29]
They are the same company at different times. Drexel bought Heritage Furniture in the 1950s, and when U.S. Plywood-Champion Papers took over in 1968 the business was renamed Drexel Heritage Furnishings. Pieces marked Drexel without Heritage are generally from before 1968, although the company went back to the plain Drexel name in the mid-2010s, shortly before production ended.[1][2][4][29]
It depends on the line, the piece, condition and originality. Guides single out Declaration, Triune and Travis Court among the more sought-after lines, larger and more complex pieces sell for more, and buyers pay more for original hardware, original finish and matched sets from one line.[4][6][25]
Looking for a piece by Drexel? Tell Kate what you need, with the size and budget you have in mind, and she will look for one. Or write to hello@formanashville.com.
New pieces go out first in the weekly letter.
One email a week, on Thursday. What arrived, what sold and for how much, and a line or two on what we are working on.