It’s 1956 and your mom and dad are shopping for furniture. They’ve recently been to New York to see the 1954 exhibition “Design in Scandinavia,” curated by Canadian designer John O. Van Koert (1912-1998), at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. They fell in love with the 700 objects from Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish designers, and in the craft tradition, making simple, usable domestic linear furniture and objects by hand.
This exhibition traveled through the U.S. and Canada from 1954 to 1957. The newness of the designs arrested young homemaker. Your mom and dad couldn’t afford Scandinavian-made furniture; they wanted the look but not the price tag. Enter Drexel Furniture Co. of Drexel, N.C., which noticed the craze and hired curator/designer Van Koert to create a line of walnut and pecan furniture to suit the tastes and budgets of post-World War II families.
Mom and Dad had a bedroom in that ranch-style house in the suburbs to fill with something special, and they chose Profile by Drexel in 1956, with a long dresser for Mom, featuring a large, simple mirror supported on posts at the back, and a tall, commodious man’s dresser with cubbies and plastic units for Dad’s things. Mom and Dad also became the first on the block to consider “sleeping together.” The early 1950s, just before they were married, was a time of single beds in most parents’ rooms. Because Profile was a European-originated design, Mom was convinced to select a double or queen headboard to span the width of one single matrimonial mattress.
Your parents sought Profile because the 1956 ad was evocative: “You can see the difference … it’s Drexel.” The ad goes on to say: “Just look! Isn’t Profile by Drexel a picture of livability? Walnut warmed with color accented by silvery hardware! Gentle modern curves, designed by John Van Koert, that (complement) traditional rooms, too. And the invisible, but inevitable, differences in all Drexel — craftsmanship and value! See for yourself, at all fine stores!” Although Dad saw that sparse modern photo, he was not persuaded. Dad insisted the family go see Profile in a showroom.
Dad picked between Abraham & Straus, Macy’s or Bloomingdale’s. When the obliging salesman showed the room setting, Mom was sold. She saw the curved cornices and splayed legs in walnut, with chartreuse upholstery, set off, vignette-style, against a purple, silver and electric blue wall. Dad got out the checkbook.
Today, this style of furniture is both hot and ubiquitous, because all of us knew a Scandinavian Modern family. American “Scandinavian” Modern had a distinct domestic look. Designers like Van Koert added American elements of Art Moderne, the sweeping aerodynamic lines of speed and movement. The real Scandinavian designs were never mass-produced. Real Scandinavian design was hand crafted and hand finished, and looked and cost it.
John Van Koert was one of the first American designers to construct in “Scandinavian,” although he was born in Manitoba and had taught art of the University of Wisconsin. His early passion was metalwork. As a young designer, he crafted jewelry for Harry Winston in New York City. As always in the decorative arts, the original inspiration for design comes from metalwork: jewelry and sterling silver. In fact, throughout any era, look at the jewelry and you will see where furniture will go.
In the early 1950s, Van Koert and designer Robert J. King created a pattern for Towle Silversmiths called “Contour,” based on the sweeping modernist curves of Miro. Contour was a hit, and a piece of Contour was featured in a 1951 show, “The History of Eating,” at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Look at the hardware on the Profile furniture pictured here, sent to me by R.P., who wants to sell it for his friend whose grandparent’s once owned it. You will see the influence of silver craftsmanship in the non-mechanical (handmade) elongation of the pulls.
One of the sad things about Drexel furniture of this era is that it has gone brown. The original color is translucent honey brown. It’s okay to refinish, as the original finishes don’t necessarily increase value because pieces are too recent and too mass-produced. If R.P. can find a buyer, that buyer will take 220 light grit sandpaper to the finish, spray it with several coats of lacquer.
R.P. asked me to research the value. At the base price, the market is asking $300 to $500 per case piece in this condition, although fine refinished pieces go for more.