Perennian isn’t a very “hot” vintage mid-century item, precisely because it wasn’t very avant-garde for its time and therefore stand out as must-have mid-century for collectors today. Heritage today is known as Drexel Heritage (a combination made in the late 1950s, though for a time they were still marketed separately.) In the living room and dining room spaces, they purchased higher end Heritage furniture, from a collection called Perennian. They shied away from “traditional” furniture and lines.
![drexel furniture 1940 drexel furniture 1940](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ed/61/83/ed61834c3c0f08e0339de7c91700f0ca.jpg)
My grandparents were no slouches when it came to purchasing durable goods for the house – they saved up and purchased things that were nice, and generally contemporary for their time. As there were large stands of now-dead chestnut that had imperfections, it was marketed as “wormy chestnut” and used as an accent piece in a lot of furniture until the supplies were exhausted, making use of what would otherwise have been considered undesirable lumber. Wormy chestnut is just chestnut wood that was harvested after the trees were infested with bugs from being killed by the chestnut blight in the middle of the 20th century. This particular piece is mostly walnut with “wormy chestnut” insets on the doors. The pieces are all hardwood with a variety of accents. The Perennian line is a bridge collection between traditional style and full midcentury modern and takes a number of cues from Danish furniture. This particular one came from Los Angeles and there were chairs from the same set that I’m in the process of reupholstering as well. This furniture is not super common, so it took some patience and waiting for a piece to come available online. This is one of the buffets from the Heritage Perennian furniture collection. It may look a little familiar to those who read the blog – it’s the same one my grandparent’s had here for over 50 years.
![drexel furniture 1940 drexel furniture 1940](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d7/46/32/d746329d5089f626d6754ddb7ad47d33.jpg)
One thing we did pick up recently is this beautiful midcentury buffet. I’ve been pretty remiss in posting, but I’ve got a lot of stuff to share on here.