Comments on: Retro dining room furniture – 1959 Heywood Wakefield Danish Modern Contessa line

By: Suzanne McKay

Suzanne McKay — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 05:26:35 +0000

Hi,

Does anyone have a picture of the Contessa Heywood Wakefield Bedroom set? An older friend has bed, dresser, chest of drawers and one night stand of what I think is this line. The bed headboard and footboard look like the “slats” in the above dining chairs. She was going to GIVE away the bed, until I convinced her NOT to. Thanks for any info you can give!

Sincerely,

Suzanne

By: Sara in AZ

Sara in AZ — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 21:49:32 +0000

FYI – The burned/stamped Eagle logo was not adopted until 1946. Prior to that Heywood marked their furniture in many different ways. One popular way was to use paper labels. The paper labels usually would fall off over time, so you would only know it was truly HW by the style numbers stamped/written on the bottom. This happened to me when I found a piece of HW at Goodwill. There was NO official HW markings anywhere on the table – only numbers and letters written and stamped on the bottom, but I was absolutely positive it was HW. I got it home and sure enough, it was HW from 1940-1944 – before they started using the burned/stamped Eagle logo. Also, on upholstered items, they would usually have a cloth tag, but again probably more so after 1946.

By: pam

pam — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:48:41 +0000

HW is usually marked with a burned in eagle within a circle logo inside the top dresser/nightstand drawer and on the underside of tables. Upholstery wasn’t usually marked.
The Contessa and CliffHouse were quality lines made in gorgeous cherry with the Doeskin finish – which looked great on birch as well but blonde was more popular in the 50s.
Unfortunately, in the late Danish period, they switched to cheaper oak and the manufacturing slipped as well.
This table is not a drop leaf.

By: sablemable

sablemable — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:53:02 +0000

I wonder if my Danish dining set is a H-W? I bought the set from one of my mother’s friends about 20 years ago. The set included 4 chairs, table with 2 leaves and a buffet.

By: Pam Kueber

Pam Kueber — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:37:36 +0000

Rosemary – sorry, I don’t. I am not a collector, just interested in the era. I am sure you can find help online from Heywood Wakefield collectors…

By: Rosemary

Rosemary — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:59:06 +0000

Do you have information to the size of the Contessa Dining Table? Also, does the table become a drop leaf table if the leaves are taken out?

By: Femme1

Femme1 — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 15:20:47 +0000

One of these dining sets was on E-Bay not that long ago. I didn’t catch the final bid price on it, though. Generally, the prices on these Danish Modern styles from Heywood-Wakefield aren’t as much as on their more well-known styles. That may be changing, though, as Danish Modern becomes more “retro” and in demand.