Introduction
This website is sponsored by Right Price Furniture, one of the UK’s top independent online furniture retailers and is a tribute to the achievements of the famous British furniture makers, Heal and Son Ltd.
Heals Furniture
Heals was established in 1810 by John Heal primarily as a company making beds. It is important to remember that during this period there were no national furniture chains or department stores and those who could afford it commissioned their furniture either from the local carpenter or from a firm of cabinet makers. The better firms of cabinet makers, such as Gillows, moved to London from where their reputation grew amongst the wealthy and fashionable – and the growing Middle Classes of Victorian Britain.
Heals traded successfully as bed makers and cabinet makers and, as was common at the time, also designed and installed complete interiors. But the company’s greatest contribution to furniture-making – and the period which firmly established its place in history – came about during the early years of the 20th Century.
Heals great contribution to furniture production
Ambrose – later Sir Ambrose – Heal joined the company in 1893 and is credited with combining the fashionable styling of the Arts and Crafts Movement with the techniques of industrialised furniture manufacture. This may not sound like much of an achievement today, but his efforts helped pave the way for future companies such as G Plan, Ercol and modern companies such as Devonshire Pine Ltd.
The first difficulty to overcome was that the artists and designers associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement were reacting against what they saw as the dehumanisation of mankind caused by the machines of the Industrial Revolution. They believed they should respond by only producing unique hand-finished pieces of art. Of course a consequence of this would be to limit availability of their designs to the very wealthy.
The other challenge was that mass manufacturing techniques for furniture were still in their infancy, and many production approaches were yet to be invented and developed. However, Ambrose Heal realised the growing ranks of the Middle Classes aspired to attractive design and the only way to fulfil such demand was through the use of large-scale manufacture, producing affordable furniture in sufficient quantities.
Ambrose Heal overcame these challenges and also helped establish the Design and Industries Association in 1915. Throughout the inter-war period of the 1920s and 1930s and right up to his retirement as chairman in 1953, Heals furniture gained a reputation for being smart, stylish and of good quality.
Heals, Liberty and Harrods
To put the achievements of Ambrose Heal in context, it is interesting to consider his contemporary, Arthur Liberty – founder of Liberty & Co – who was already working with designers from the Arts and Crafts Movement by the time Ambrose Heal began work at Heals in 1893.
Liberty & Co had been founded 19 years earlier, selling furnishings and furniture with a pronounced emphasis on Japanese and Chinese furniture (the Chinoiserie that was so popular in Victorian Britain). Arthur Liberty also worked with many famous designers, is credited with being a leading influence in the development of Art Nouveau, and is best remembered for the fabric designs that have become synonymous with his name.
Both Heals and Liberty became department stores and the other famous contemporary was Harrods, originally established as a grocery store by Charles Henry Harrod in 1834. By the time Ambrose Heal started work, Harrods had moved to its Knightsbridge location and shares in Harrods Stores Limited were being traded on the London Stock Exchange.
All three businesses were involved in the birth of the department store in Britain. They began as bed makers, home ware retailers and grocers but as they grew they all took on more enterprises – catering to the ‘invention’ of shopping as a leisure activity.
