Grand Villa Dresser

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.

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. 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.

One of Drexel’s early innovations was to employ staff designers, something the company initiated in the 1930s. 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. 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. Others replicated the ornate details of 18th-century chinoiserie or the embellishments of Queen Anne furniture. Always ready to adapt to new customer demands, during World War II, Drexel built a sturdy desk designed especially for General Douglas MacArthur.

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. In the 1970s, Drexel introduced high-end furniture in a Mediterranean style.

Drexel changed hands and visions throughout the years. It was managed by one of the original partners — Samuel Huffman — until 1935, at which time his son Robert O. Huffman took over as president. 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. and more.

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. By 1957, the company that had started with a factory of 50 workers had 2,300 employees and was selling its furniture nationwide.

Drexel underwent a series of name changes in its long history. Its acquisition of Southern Desk Company in 1960 bolstered its production of institutional furniture for dormitories, classrooms, churches and laboratories.

In the following decades, contracts with government agencies, hotels, schools and hospitals brought its high-quality furniture to a global audience. U.S. Plywood-Champion Papers bought Drexel Enterprises in 1968, and it became Drexel Heritage Furnishings.

In 2014, the last Drexel Heritage plant, in Morganton, North Carolina, reportedly closed its doors. The company rebranded as Drexel in 2017.

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.

The style of 18th-century French furniture was guided by the court. When Louis XV, who reigned from 1715–74, focused royal life on the smaller salons of Versailles rather than its grand chambers, it transformed the aesthetics away from the imposing and angular furniture that characterized the style of Louis XIV. A broader focus on comfort and more delicate forms define antique Louis XV furniture, with nature-inspired carvings, wood inlays, curved cabriole legs, asymmetrical shapes and rounded oval seat backs. The furnishings changed throughout the king’s life, as he ascended to the throne as a child and then grew to establish his own tastes.

Pieces like the bergère, an upholstered armchair with a wide cushion that fit the flowing dresses in fashion at the time, reflected this more informal court. Introduced at the start of Louis XV’s reign, bergère chairs in this style were deeper and broader than other chairs of the period.

Louis XV tapestries and carpets tended to be floral and colorful, and design elements were borrowed from Asia. Dutch-born cabinetmaker Bernard van Risenburgh brought lacquer techniques influenced by Japan and China into his luxuriously made furniture. Along with its fine details, the furniture of the era also featured new innovations including mechanical devices. Jean François Oeben, a royal cabinetmaker, created such intricate pieces as a mechanical table for Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV’s mistress. It involved a sliding top and a writing surface that extended from its marquetry panels.

During the later years of Louis XV’s reign, there was a shift from the ostentatious rocaille style, part of the exuberantly decorative Rococo movement in Europe for which designers such as Nicolas Pineau and Juste-Aurèle Meissonier are known. The style under Louis XVI would return to boxier forms, but with a neoclassical touch inspired by the ancient world.

Find antique Louis XV bedroom furniture, seating, tables and decorative objects on 1stDibs.

Antique, new and vintage dressers are a staple in any household. Whether it’s a 19th-century solid pine or oak Welsh kitchen dresser you’re using to store tableware or a Broyhill Brasilia highboy in your bedroom, these furniture fixtures are essential for making the most of your space.

The first step in finding the perfect dresser is considering your particular needs. Most tall dressers offer anywhere from five to seven drawers, essentially allowing for the organization of an entire wardrobe, while shorter, waist-height dresser varieties can be equipped with a convenient vanity mirror.

A highboy dresser is usually around six feet tall, with some versions standing even taller at seven feet or so. Highboys, which began to appear with frequency during the early 17th century in England, are essentially very tall dressers with lots of drawers, whereas a lowboy is a different type of storage furniture in that it's a dressing table with one or two rows of drawers. 

When shopping for your antique or vintage dresser, consider those that bear the hallmarks of solid construction. Good furniture means making an investment, and solid hardwood pieces of maple, walnut or cherry will prove far more durable than a bedroom dresser made of particleboard.

If you’re looking for a mid-century modern case piece that boasts a subdued pairing of wood grains and uncomplicated drawer pulls, browse elegant dressers designed by Florence Knoll, Harvey Probber, Paul McCobb and other furniture makers associated with the celebrated style on 1stDibs. 

Dressers characterized by bolder designs are also popular: Not only will your new piece of furniture be a storage solution, but it'll also make a statement.

Art Deco furniture makers preferred to work with dark woods and typically incorporated decorative embellishments. An ornately carved French or Italian Art Deco dresser complete with vanity mirror and cabriole scrolled feet might better complement the other pieces in your home. Alternatively, if you favor sumptuous antique furniture with curving lines and floral flourishes, the collection on 1stDibs also includes sophisticated 1800s-era Victorian walnut dressers and washstands with marble tops.

After all, a good case piece isn’t merely for minimizing clutter in your space. The style of your chosen dresser and its specific attributes should add something to your decor and your home. Modern creations include one-of-a-kind shapes, like the venturesome chests of drawers in leather, marble and wood crafted by the likes of Roberto Cavalli.

Explore a broad array of antique and vintage dressers today on 1stDibs.