Heritage Henredon Coffee Table

Vintage Heritage-Henredon coffee tables and other furnishings are widely loved by design enthusiasts all over the world.

During the mid-century years, North Carolina furniture manufacturers Henredon and Heritage had a cross-licensing agreement. Works by legendary designers Dorothy Draper and Frank Lloyd Wright for these brands during the era are usually labeled Heritage-Henredon.

Heritage was founded in 1937 in High Point by Elliott Wood — with the support of his father, George, who owned a wholesale rug business — while Henredon was established in 1945, in Morganton, by a group of Drexel Furniture Company executives interested in making unique custom furniture for new homeowners of the postwar era. 

Henry Wilson, Ralph Edwards and Don VanNoppen — the first few letters of their names combined to create the name Henredon — launched the brand with a total of three chest trunks for sale (Sterling Collett, a fourth figure mentioned in Henredon’s history, chaired the company and served as treasurer). Heritage’s Wood was an original investor in Henredon when the company was getting off the ground.

North Carolina became a hub for furniture design — there was Thomasville and Tomlinson in Thomasville and High Point, respectively, while iconic mid-century modern brands Century, Broyhill and Drexel also opened their doors in the so-called “Tar Heel State.” 

During a heyday of production in the mid-1950s, Heritage entered into a partnership with iconic designer Dorothy Draper, while Frank Lloyd Wright created several lines of furniture for Henredon — the works by both designers were marketed under the Heritage-Henredon name. Wright, a legendary architect who gave us some of the most elegant buildings in America, designed his popular Taliesin Series — named after his houses in Wisconsin and Arizona — while Draper, famed for bravura interior design commissions such as the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco and the Greenbrier resort in West Virginia, is known to Heritage-Henredon enthusiasts for her España chests, side tables and other pieces. 

On 1stdibs, find vintage Heritage-Henredon dressers, cabinets, tables, seating and more.

As a practical focal point in your living area, antique and vintage coffee tables and cocktail tables are an invaluable addition to any interior.

Low tables that were initially used as tea tables or coffee tables have been around since at least the mid- to late-1800s. Early coffee tables surfaced in Victorian-era England, likely influenced by the use of tea tables in Japanese tea gardens. In the United States, furniture makers worked to introduce low, long tables into their offerings as the popularity of coffee and “coffee breaks” took hold during the late 19th century and early 20th century.

It didn’t take long for coffee tables and cocktail tables to become a design staple and for consumers to recognize their role in entertaining no matter what beverages were being served. Originally, these tables were as simple as they are practical — as high as your sofa and made primarily of wood. In recent years, however, metal, glass and plastics have become popular in coffee tables and cocktail tables, and design hasn’t been restricted to the conventional low profile, either.

Visionary craftspeople such as Paul Evans introduced bold, geometric designs that challenge the traditional idea of what a coffee table can be. The elongated rectangles and wide boxy forms of Evans’s desirable Cityscape coffee table, for example, will meet your needs but undoubtedly prove imposing in your living space.

If you’re shopping for an older coffee table to bring into your home — be it an antique Georgian-style coffee table made of mahogany or walnut with decorative inlays or a classic square mid-century modern piece comprised of rosewood designed by the likes of Ettore Sottsass — there are a few things you should keep in mind.

Both the table itself and what you put on it should align with the overall design of the room, not just by what you think looks fashionable in isolation. According to interior designer Tamara Eaton, the material of your vintage coffee table is something you need to consider. “With a glass coffee table, you also have to think about the surface underneath, like the rug or floor,” she says. “With wood and stone tables, you think about what’s on top.”

Find the perfect centerpiece for any room, no matter what your personal furniture style on 1stDibs — shop Art Deco coffee tables, travertine coffee tables and other antique and vintage coffee tables and cocktail tables today.