Newbie introduction, with an I.D. question (Drexel).  

Hi,

My name is Keith, from L.A., CA. I am not a dealer, or even a hobbyist really. I just signed up because I am frustrating myself with fruitless Google searches regarding some of my pieces of furniture.

I'm moving into a new place, and I can finally use the Drexel furniture I grew up with, which I have kept in storage for almost 10 years. I have a matching dining room table and pad, cocktail table, and step table. My grandparents bought this stuff brand new, so it has always been (and always will be) in our family.

The sad thing is that there used to be two matching step tables. But one of them got separated from the set by my uncle, so my grandmother could use it in her apartment. Unfortunately, it got left behind by my inattentive uncle during one of my grandmother's later moves. It is long gone now; there is no chance of getting it back.

I'd really like to replace the piece, but I can't seem to figure out what exactly it is. It's a very simplistic, boxy Drexel style – probably the most so of anything I've seen in my online searching – and I can't for the life of me find a single matching example online. No swoops, curves, roundovers, or anything so stylish. It's dead boxy. And the leg supoorts are contiguous with the body of the table, i.e. there are no "struts" per se, which would have air space between them and the body.

Numbers on the bottom have provided no Google hits either, although I think they might be saying that the table was made in '55 (the year of my dad's birth). The model number and name seems to be 2496-5 STEP TABLE.

Any help identifying this line would be most appreciated. If you know where I can find one, even better! But I'm not really there yet. I am just hoping to find out what to look for at this point.

Another question: Are these pieces finished with nitrocellulose lacquer? I am actually quite practiced at using it, being a guitar repairman and builder, so I was considering doing a few touchups and then respraying the tops of the pieces. But I want to use a material that would be appropriate for the pieces.

Thanks in advance!

Keith

P.S. I will get better pix up in a bit. Thanks for your patience. But for now, here is a group shot of all the furniture I'm restoring at the moment. The cocktail table in the background is from the Drexel set I'm talking about. (It has a drawer on the other side.)