Solid Cherry Bench by Stewart MacDougall and Kipp Stewart for Winchendon, 1950s

While American furniture designers Kipp Stewart & Stewart MacDougall created a range of mid-century modernist works for Glenn of California and other manufacturers, the duo is best known for Declaration, a collection they designed for Drexel Furniture.

It’s true that design lovers have long revered Drexel’s bedroom furniture of the 1960s, and collectors of mid-century modern pieces are drawn to vintage Drexel dressers, Drexel Heritage sofas and the series that Stewart (1928–2022) and MacDougall (1927–2016) designed for the North Carolina manufacturer. But Drexel’s story actually begins decades before its celebrated Declaration line and other postwar furnishings took shape.

Drexel was founded in 1903 and earned a reputation for works that were 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. 

By the time he graduated from Chouinard Art Institute in his adopted home state of California, the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-born Kipp Stewart was steeped in the world of modern seating design, experimenting with new chair models that bridged form and function. Charles and Ray Eames were important influences on his early work. 

The Eameses — whose lounge chair is among the most iconic works manufactured by legendary Michigan company Herman Miller — were also inspirational for Stewart MacDougall, a Pasadena, California-born designer who, like Kipp, attended Chouinard. 

When Drexel embraced the clean lines of mid-century modernism with the Declaration collection, Kipp and Stewart were producing case pieces and more for Glenn of California, an Arcadia-based brand that also manufactured furniture designed by the likes of Greta Magnusson Grossman, Milo Baughman and others.

Drexel’s Declaration line was constructed entirely of natural walnut and featured the choice of white porcelain or brass drawer pulls and cabinet door handles. Although its stylish credenzas, dressers and other pieces reflect the kind of slim-lined, low-slung silhouettes for which mid-century design has become known, there are also elements that nod to earlier American and European furniture design, such as the dining chairs whose flattened spindle backs recall Shaker and Windsor chair design, distinguishing them from the modern designs becoming prolific in Scandinavia at the time.

While Kipp Stewart found success as a painter and with his Ventana Big Sur project, which he designed in 1972 — and had also created chairs, chests and more for Directional — the Drexel Declaration line is his widely recognized furniture collection and remains highly sought after by collectors today. Stewart MacDougall’s interests also spanned other areas of design — he worked on vintage cars, created golf clubs and built sailboats — but furniture obsessives know him best for the distinctive Declaration series.

The Declaration pieces were so indicative of a particularly American style, in fact, that several items from the collection were selected by the U.S. government to represent the country at the Brussels World’s Fair in 1958.

Find vintage Kipp Stewart & Stewart MacDougall furniture on 1stDibs.

Brilliant self-trained American designer Paul McCobb collaborated with New York salesman B.G. Mesberg to create what is now a widely revered collection of mid-century modern furniture called the Planner Group. Produced by renowned manufacturer Winchendon Furniture Company, vintage Planner Group dressers, credenzas, chairs and other pieces bring honesty and heritage into any interior.

More than any other designer beside Russel Wright, the Massachusetts-born McCobb was arguably responsible for the introduction of modern design into middle-class American households — if for no other reason than that he designed the 1952 set for the original Today show.

Of McCobb’s cohesive lines of furnishings, his best-known Planner Group gave homes an instant “look.” McCobb designed for several companies, most notably Directional, the New York firm he cofounded with Mesberg that also produced designs by other legends such as Paul Evans and Vladimir Kagan.

Known for their superior quality and affordable prices aimed at new homeowners, vintage Winchendon case furniture, side tables and desks were must-have staples for middle-class Americans in the postwar years. McCobb and Mesberg’s Planner Group for the manufacturer boasts a wide range of furnishings created in woods such as walnut and maple.

McCobb drew on the simplicity of Shaker furniture and Windsor chairs and was an advocate for modular furniture. A new homeowner could plan for properly furnishing each room with the Planner collection — a brochure touted its versatility — beginning with a couple of pieces from the series and gradually introducing more seating, cabinets and tables, stacking and combining as needed.

McCobb shared the limelight with the likes of celebrated American designers Charles and Ray Eames and was supposed to appear in a 1961 issue of Playboy magazine — a mid-century tastemaker of sorts — alongside other designers such as Eero Saarinen, Harry Bertoia, Jens Risom and Edward Wormley. A social and charismatic figure, McCobb can be found in photos from a party that took place the night before, but he was too hungover the next day to join the photo shoot.

For more than a decade beginning in 1950, the Planner designs comprised the best-selling furniture suite in the United States.

Find vintage Planner Group furniture and other Paul McCobb furniture on 1stDibs.