UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549 FORM 3 INITIAL STATEMENT OF BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP OF SECURITIES 1. Name and Address of Reporting Person PIERCE, III, FRANK M BASSETT FURNITURE INDUSTRIES, INC. 3525 FAIRYSTONE PARK HWY P O BOX 626 BASSETT, VA 24055 USA 2. Date of Event Requiring Statement (Month/Day/Year) MARCH 10, 1999 3. IRS or Social Security Number of Reporting Person (Voluntary) ###-##-#### 4. Issuer Name and Ticker or Trading Symbol BASSETT FURNITURE INDUSTRIES, INC. BSET 5. Relationship of Reporting Person(s) to Issuer (Check all applicable) ( ) Director ( ) 10% Owner (X) Officer (give title below) ( ) Other (specify below) EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT-OPERATIONS 6. If Amendment, Date of Original (Month/Day/Year) 7. Individual or Joint/Group Filing (Check Applicable Line) ( ) Form filed by One Reporting Person ( ) Form filed by More than One Reporting Person ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Table I -- Non-Derivative Securities Beneficially Owned | ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________| 1. Title of Security |2. Amount of |3. Ownership |4. Nature of Indirect | | Securities | Form: | Beneficial Ownership | | Beneficially | Direct(D) or | | | Owned | Indirect(I) | | ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________| COMMON STOCK |0 |D | | - -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________| ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Table II -- Derivative Securitites Beneficially Owned | ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________| 1.Title of Derivative |2.Date Exer- |3.Title and Amount | |4. Conver-|5. Owner- |6. Nature of Indirect | Security | cisable and | of Underlying | |sion or |ship | Beneficial Ownership | | Expiration | Securities | |exercise |Form of | | | Date(Month/ |-----------------------|---------|price of |Deriv- | | | Day/Year) | |Amount |deri- |ative | | | Date | Expira- | |or |vative |Security: | | | Exer- | tion | Title |Number of|Security |Direct(D) or | | | cisable | Date | |Shares | |Indirect(I) | | ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________| *OPTION (RIGHT TO BUY) |2-12-02 |2-11-09 |COMMON |40,000 |20.50 |D | | - -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________| Explanation of Responses: *GRANTED UNDER THE 1997 EMPLOYEE STOCK PLAN. SIGNATURE OF REPORTING PERSON FRANK M. PIERCE, III DATE MARCH 10, 1999