HEALS CATALOGUES, 1844-1950

Publisher's Note

Heal & Sons are one of Britain’s leading furniture makers and currently have flagship department stores in London, Manchester, Kingston and Guildford, as well as an online presence. They sell everything from beds and tables, linens and curtains, to lighting and electrical goods, house-ware and garden furniture. Their catalogues act as an index to taste and design and are an ideal source for the study of domestic life.

The firm was founded as a business for the supply of bedding in 1810 by John Harris Heal in Rathbone Place, London. In 1818 they moved to Tottenham Court Road, which has been their home ever since. Following the death of the founder in 1834, Fanny Heal (his widow) and John Harris Heal the younger formed a successful partnership and expanded their premises considerably in 1840, and gradually expanded the range of goods on offer.

As early as 1844 they registered their desire to enter as “minutely and fully as possible into the particulars of every article described” and by 1858 they were illustrating their catalogues with pictures of entire rooms. These are a great asset to the social historian and the historian of commodities, as we can see how households were organised and how various objects were arranged and displayed. The 1854 catalogue of ‘an officer’s equipage for campaigning’ provides interesting insights into Victorian military expeditions and usefully explains how a trunk, bedstead and other items can be loaded on a horse.

In 1875, John Harris Heal the younger was succeeded in the partnership by his sons, Harris and Ambrose Heal, and his son-in-law, Alfred Brewer. They were later joined by Ambrose Heal junior in 1898 and Ralph Heal in 1905.

The 1881 catalogue talks of “the reputation they have gained during the last 50 years for GOOD TASTE, SOUND WORK and MODERATE PRICES”, and it is because they appealed to such a wide range of society that their output is interesting. Their catalogues provide an accurate description of High Victorian style as it was embraced by the middle classes. By 1895, use of illustrations was even more pronounced, providing the lay-out of rooms, the cost of all items displayed, and even suggesting ideas for pictures to be displayed on walls and the arrangement of table-ware. By 1896 they started to use photographs of their ‘show rooms’ and the 1897 catalogue lists a vast range of goods for the home from baskets to writing tables. There are also pictures of their Heal & Sons factory.

The 1899 catalogue marked a further innovation with the inclusion of an essay on “Simplicity of Design” by Gleason White and numerous woodcut illustrations, notable for their clean lines. White proclaimed that “Simplicity of design has been said to be the final refuge of the complex” and that “to be simple in decoration is always in good taste.” By 1900, following the display of one of their rooms at the Paris Exhibition, they were described by a writer in The Architectural Review (June 1900) as “Messrs Heal & Son, the well-known artistic furnishers.”

In 1907 Heal & Son became a Limited Company with Ambrose Heal senior as Chairman, and Ambrose and Ralph Heal as directors. From 1907 to 1922 business trebled and much of this was due to the design initiatives of Ambrose Heal junior (1872-1959), who had been a fan of Ruskin and Morris and an admirer of the Arts and Crafts movement from an early age. He was disgusted with the level of craftsmanship shown by many manufacturers and worried by the expense of hand-made furniture. As such, he pioneered the mass production of furniture based on simple design and construction with little ornamentation and enabled ordinary folk to own stylish, well-made tables, chairs, wardrobes, dressers, book-cases and beds.

They also supplied furniture for asylums, hospitals, sanatoria, and nursing homes, and promoted inexpensive handmade pottery.

In 1913, Sir Ambrose Heal, as he then was, took control of the firm and helped to popularise the Art Deco style in England. The war of 1914-1918 caused great anxiety and aircraft raid precautions are given in their catalogue for 1916.

Following the Great War, the Depression of the 1920s and 1930s set in and posed a severe challenge for many businesses. Heal’s tried to embrace the spirit of the times:

“Heal’s Shop in 1933 bears witness to the new spirit that is replacing the determined gloom of 1932. Economy is still – for most people – a regrettable necessity: but the sort of the economy that consists in abstaining from necessary purchases, has ceased to be regarded as a patriotic duty. … There is no ‘luxury’ furniture illustrated in this booklet.”

It was now that their focus on simple, modern design came into its own as this could be easily produced and sold at reasonable prices. ‘Inexpensive design’ was the phrase that captured all that was on offer in their Tottenham Court Road department store in 1939. They offered:

3rd Floor – Carpets & Rugs

2nd Floor – Pottery, Glass & Toys

1st Floor – Upholstery & Electrical

Gd Floor – Linens & General

Basement – Wood & Metal wares.

The Second World War caused further need for austerity, but the focus on craftsmanship continued and by 1950 their catalogues and designs epitomised the style of the Festival of Britain.

This project brings together a fabulous range of Heal’s Catalogues from 1844 to 1950 and enables scholars to look at the changes in the home over a 100 year period.

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