Great Furniture Finds

[xraytech]

Well as some may know I purchased a home during the holidays. While I had plenty of furnishings I've squired over the years there were still things I needed/wanted.

Well this week while scanning craigslist I found an ad fairly local for a mahogany buffet.
I went to go check it out and found it to be this lovely 1940s Drexel.
Naturally I couldn't pass this up. The picture is of it sitting in the living room awaiting it's move down the hall to the dining room

 

[xraytech]

When I went to look at the buffet I found the seller runs a small used furniture shop on the weekends. Naturally I looked around at all his furniture hoping I'd find a nice console or something to place in a corner of the living room at the bottom of the steps to the second floor.

Just as I was about to leave I spotted this gorgeous buffet and I knew instantly it was a perfect fit
Here it is in it's new home

 

[xraytech]

Here is a better look at the front

 

[xraytech]

A look at the makers tag
At first glance there was no doubt it was a Broyhill

Overall I think both were greT buys at just over $200 for both pieces

 

[petek]

Oh, that's nice stuff, you did real good.

 

[appnut]

An aunt had that exact same Drexel buffet as well as matching table with leaf and chairs.

 

[mattl]

My aunt had a very similar if not exact buffet and it has been passed down to a number of people over the years, one of my cousin's has it now.  I have a similar buffet but mine has curved doors in the center. It's  in the basement along with the corner cabinet.  My brother has the table with the pedestal legs that completed the set.  Nice stuff but far from my taste and matches nothing in the house any more so it's tucked away.

 

[norgeway]

Broyhill Premiere

An idea from the mind of Paul Broyhill when he took over as president from his Dad, Mr J E as we all called him, All Premier goods were built at the old Lenoir Furniture Co Known in Lenoir as Corporation, I worked at the Harper plant, anyway, The Premier line was designed to move Broyhill into the upper middle price bracket , which it did, the most popular lines were, Saga,Sculptra, Brasilia and Invitation,also a line called Forward 70,These all were real moneymakers, when Broyhill was still a family owned company, I saw James Broyhill a few weeks back,"Mr J Es youngest son and former NC Congressman and U S Senator, the Broyhills all were very community minded people, always doing a little bit extra for Lenoir and NC, My Mother was the director of Advertising for Broyhill for many years, and she said the main office got more calls about the early 60s Premier furniture, than anything the company ever made, even into the 90s, people were still wanting extra pieces that had not been made in 30 years!!We have a Brasilia dining room set.

 

[circlew]

Sam,

The mahogany Drexel buffet is beautiful. Is is part of the "New Travis Court" collection?

I have a smaller (non bow-front) Drexel buffet & matching drop-leaf table that was my mom's, that are "New Travis Court". She bought them around 1950. Many pieces of the style were still being made into the 70's, as I remember a table like ours being on display at Pogue's dept. store.

 

[rp2813]

Nice scores, Sam!  Well worth what you paid.

 

I'm sure you're having fun outfitting your new home.  Keep on posting your finds!

 

Ralph

 

[NYCWriter]

SWEET!!!!

You have great taste.

 

[norgeway]

Drexel..

Is a small town between Hickory and Morganton , on old highway 70, not much left now, as it was bought out and pretty much done away with.

 

[ovrphil]

Reply #11

Norgeway - so disappointing to hear, if it wasn't an LBO, it was outsourcing to China...is there any furniture made in the USA here, anymore...name brand furniture companies seem to have "sold out". Not to start a different thread or hijack this one, but just wanted to say, it is sad.

 

[supersuds]

Hans can probably answer better, but there is some American furniture. Ethan Allen has 4 US plants according to Wikpedia, and Heywood Wakefield (revived) has a couple.Thomasville has announced they're closing their plant in Thomasville, N.C. next month.

http://www.journalnow.com/business/...a18-82b3-11e3-91a4-0019bb30f31a.html?mode=jqm

 

[ovrphil]

Disheartening news to read

Thanks Supersuds for the link - Glad someone is still here.

Meanwhile, there's iKea ... occasionally.

 

[norgeway]

The original

Thomasville plant is just an empty building now, was over there a couple of weeks ago, TV is only abot 30 miles away...a good antique mall there.I think the big problem is, most of the old companies..Thomasville, Broyhill Drexel, etc were bought out by big companies like Furnitur Brands in St Louis, All they care about is money!! I know Fairfield , Bernhardt and kincaid are still family owned, but most still outsource lots of parts, some stuff is assembled and finished here...from Chinese parts.

 

[joelippard]

I also had heard from a lady that used to work at the church whose husband was an engineer at Broyhill (now retired) that at one point they were shipping the parts to China for assembly, then back here for sale.  Problems that developed from this were that the stuff that came back had to be worked on before it could be sold in some cases.  The whole thing sounded like a money wasting bunch of crap to me.  Certain pieces could not be sold at places like the Hickory Furniture Mart because they didn't meet the gold standard of quality expected there.