Drexel Heritage was the name of what is now known as just “Drexel Furniture”. Previously, the company made fabulous traditional adaptations under the Drexel Heritage Furniture name.
Today, they abandoned the Heritage part of their name to pursue more contemporary styles and modern twists. However, good old Drexel Heritage still has a devoted following.
And for good reason! Drexel Heritage furniture has beautiful lines, fabulous veneers and lovely French, Italian, Asian and British inspired designs.
Like Ethan Allen Furniture, Drexel Furniture has a great following and excellent name recognition.
Is Drexel Furniture Still in Business?
Sadly, Drexel Furniture is no longer in business. After many acquisitions and mergers by various parent groups, Drexel Furniture no longer manufacturers furniture. Additionally, as of 2020, no company has produced furniture under the Drexel name. In other words, it appears that no company currently licenses furniture using the Drexel Company identity.
Heritage Home Group, which was the most recent parent company to own Drexel, filed for bankruptcy in 2018. HHG owned other great American brands such as Henredon Furniture, Hickory Chair and Maitland Smith.
Perhaps in the future, other established manufacturers or large parent companies will find a reason to resuscitate the Drexel Brand. After all, Drexel Furniture has a long history, a devoted following, and a great reputation.
So, let’s look at the company’s history and what made them great!
Drexel Furniture History
Firstly, Drexel Furniture Company started in 1903 in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina. At first, the owner of Drexel, Sam Huffman, focused on offering low priced furniture to consumers. His son and heir to the company, Robert O. Huffman took a different path. By the 1930s, Drexel started offering a higher priced product. He offset his costs by advertising more.
So, during the 1930s and 1940s, Drexel grew in its operations. Indeed, by the 1950s, Drexel Furniture Company had acquired other manufacturing plants and thus became a more prominent company in the field of furniture making. By the late 1950s, Drexel Furniture Company employed 2,300 workers. And, Drexel Furniture company reached nationwide distribution and was featured in over 2000 stores.
The post war era was good for Drexel. Of course, as the United States middle class grew, so too did the demand for more and better furniture. Drexel positioned themselves as offering a very solid quality product for a mid-market to upper market price.
After a few mergers in the 1960s, Drexel became “Drexel Heritage Company” in 1968.
Since then, the Drexel name has been used on multiple styles of furniture. Indeed, Drexel Furniture offered so many different styles of bedroom, living room and dining room furniture. So, the Drexel Heritage Furniture Catalog features a multitude of different styles.
Additionally, the company also offered furniture for commercial markets. So, they made furniture for dormitories, hospitals and many government buildings as well. Likely, you will find lots of office and government furniture from the 1960s and 1970s that is marked Drexel.
Vintage Drexel Heritage Furniture
Principally, the Drexel Heritage line features traditional styles and adaptations. In other words, many Drexel Heritage pieces were based on British and French antiques.
Fine striped wood overlays and deep finishes often feature on Drexel Heritage furniture. La Belle Maison line, for instance, has curvy headboards and cabriole legs.
Other lines by Drexel Heritage furniture featured beautiful bowed front dressers and Sheraton inspired designs. Likewise, you may see some Yew Wood pieces that feature banding and Neoclassical style hardware to echo these traditional roots.
However, many Drexel Heritage designers took liberty with their antique inspirations and often changed the scale and simplified the finish. This updated and freshened the designs and made Drexel Heritage a great choice for modern and traditional homes.
Sometimes, more Tuscan styles played into vintage Drexel Heritage Furniture. Walnut colored veneers, large swooping curves and dramatic cathedral like beds helped make these Tuscan-inspired pieces great for modern homes in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Fans of Drexel Heritage furniture often purchased entire households of furniture to help unify their aesthetic throughout their homes.
Finally, you may see some striking Chinoiserie style furniture made by Drexel Heritage on your travels. These Oriental style furniture pieces often featured real gold leaf, fine hand painted scenes and lacquered finishes. Drexel Oriental style China cabinets could be just the statement piece you are looking for.
Mid Century Modern Drexel Furniture
Of course, Mid Century Modern Drexel Furniture has a high level of collectability as well. MCM designs by Drexel feature sleek lines, beautiful walnut or mahogany veneers and unique hardware.
Drexel Furniture adapted with the trends during the 1950s and 1960s. So, they offered great mid-market furniture adapting some of the Danish and famous American styles that emerged.
Indeed, Mid Century Modern Drexel dressers can have a surprisingly high resale value. Likewise, Drexel Mid Century buffets can really be desirable for today’s homes.
How to Identify Drexel Furniture
In order to really establish your furniture is made by Drexel Furniture, you first need to find a maker’s mark. Drexel’s labels have changed much over the years. So, do not be alarmed if a search for your mark takes some digging.
Most of Drexel’s stamps include a burned in design found in the top drawer of a chest, or on the back of the piece. However, there were also metal tags in the later years. Today, most of Drexel Furniture features a brass tag that is simply nailed in.
If the furniture tag is missing, or if you cannot read the label, you may want to consult an expert. Because Drexel produced so many collections of furniture, identifying it as Drexel takes a trained eye. Of course, like Henredon Furniture collectors, Drexel Furniture Collectors want to see the true label to verify.
You can also gain clues to the age of your Drexel piece by reading the Drexel Furniture numbers. On the back of your piece, you will see a series of numbers that corresponds to the factory number, model number and sometimes the finish of the Drexel piece.
So, these numbers can be useful when looking at old Drexel catalogs. Indeed, you may be able to find the exact piece of Drexel furniture you own.
Drexel Furniture Value
Drexel Furniture values can fluctuate like any market. However, many are surprised and happy to learn that certain vintage Drexel pieces remain valuable and desirable today.
For instance, the aforementioned Mid Century Modern Drexel furniture can really reach good resale values online. Of course, with the popularity of MCM styles, Drexel MCM buffets, dressers and dining sets can really find homes pretty easily.
Likewise, European-inspired collections by Drexel certainly can fit with homeowners looking for traditional style furniture. Drexel Tourraine Collection really has a fabulous French country look.
Fitting Drexel Heritage Furniture into Your Home
Because of the diversity of styles of Drexel Heritage Furniture, customers have many options when it comes to investing in vintage furniture.
You could simply purchase one or two pieces to help round out a bedroom, or you could fill an entire dining room with beautiful Drexel Heritage. Either way, you can be certain that you will find a great deal on the Best Drexel Heritage Vintage Furniture by taking your time and really consulting the seller.
While you can certainly trust new Drexel Furniture, many people prefer to purchase vintage Drexel Furniture from a certain collection. Of course, you can no doubt get a very high quality Drexel piece for the fraction of the cost. So, happy hunting for those discontinued Drexel furniture pieces!