Arts and Crafts Online

Twenty 10 An online selling exhibition to mark the beginning of the new decade of twenty works by modern and contemporary British artist alongside ten iconic furniture designs by Sir Ambrose Heal to mark the bi-centenary of the opening of Heal & Son in 1810.

Ambrose Heal as a young man - View online catalogue

Ambrose Heal Simplicity & Style

"Simplicity has been said to be the final refuge of the complex. Nor is the statement really a paradox. To be simple in decoration is always to be in good taste, and, as a rule, to fulfil the intended purpose more satisfactorily"

Glesson White: A Note on Simplicity of Design in Furniture for Bedrooms with special reference to some recently produced by Messrs. Heal & Son. 1897.

It is a paradox that the majority of the pioneers of the Arts & Crafts Movement, including William Morris himself, never achieved what was arguably their most important aim, to supply well-made, soundly-constructed furniture to the vast majority of people, but became instead the suppliers to a wealthy minority.

Many set up remote utopian communities to avoid the destructive forces of profit driven, mechanised production and design techniques. Others produced work of he finest craftsmanship and materials, but at such cost that it was unaffordable for ordinary people.

When commercial firms attempted to appropriate Arts & Crafts designs they produced, with only a small number of notable exceptions, a vulgar imitation that lacked the vital ingredients of the Movement's work.

The importance of the work of Ambrose Heal, particularly in his earlier designs, is that it demonstrated that this was not an entirely inevitable consequence. He designed, produced and marketed a body of work that is undoubtedly equal, if not superior, to that of his contemporaries and which was made available to a far greater audience than hitherto.

That Heal did this was not due to an individual genius which those around him lacked, but rather a set of circumstance which came together to produce one of the high points in British furniture design.

Originality.

Before we go any further we should deal with a question that has dogged the work of Ambrose Heal, namely plagiarism. Margaret Gimson stated that her husband Ernest, the great Cotswold School designer, had told his sister not to show too much of his work to Heal.

However it will not stand up to any serious examination that, as has been suggested, Heal merely copied the work of others. Like everyone connected with the Arts & Crafts Movement Ambrose Heal was influenced by, and in turned influence, those around him.

Annette Carruthers & Mary Greensted are right to point out, in Good Citizen's Furniture, when discussing his inlaid work that "echoes of Baillie Scott's furniture appear in Heals work, though it is difficult to be sure which way the influence was working".

The accusation of 'cribbing' stems, in part, from the belief by a purist element in the Movement that if the work is widely available it must therefore be faulted or a cheap imitation.

Perhaps this is due partly to the fact that whilst Heal & Son widely marketed some excellent  Arts & Crafts furniture they never ceased to sell some of the most abominable mass produced goods, the antithesis of the Arts & Crafts ethic.

No less an authority than Gleeson White, editor of the influential magazine The Studio, was so impressed by Heal's work that he wrote an essay, published in 1897, expounding the quality and simplicity in design, and the caliber of Ambrose Heals' furniture being sold in the Tottenham Court Road showrooms:

"Had such things been exhibited either by professional or amateurs at any exhibition of applied arts ... critics would have extolled them". 

He went on to say "a suspicion, by no mean baseless, often prevents a critic noticing the work of any firm because to do so savours of advertisement. But those who write on art are seldom too timid to express their appreciation of Mr William Morris's wall papers and fabrics, Mr Benson's lamps, Mr Powell's 'Whitefriars' glass and the rest; in fact any work duly assigned to an individual, even if it be sol by a firm of which the designer is a member.

"Therefore, if in approving Mr Ambrose Heal's admirable designs for bedroom furniture it also reflects praise on the firm, the charge of puffing commercial wares may be risked lightly. To speak up for good design whether made by obscure amateur , or by manufacturers in a large way of business, is the duty of those engaged in recording the progress of the applied arts"

For White, who was well acquainted with the designs of the other craftsmen and designers, there was no question of doubt. For him Ambrose Heal was a talented and original designer who deserved high praise.

Heal was undoubtedly influenced by, for example Ford Maddox Brown. His adaptation were, however, the result of study and appreciation; not mere copies. Would anyone suggest that Philip Webb merely copied his design for the famed Morris & Co 'Sussex' chair from the 18th century original?

What is more he openly acknowledge this influence and appreciation by naming many of his suites, for example 'Ruskin', 'Kelmscott' and 'Yattendon', in recognition of the movement which so inspired him.

"Heal was instrumental in passing the Morris legacy into Twentieth century manufactured design"

Jeremy Cooper - Victorian & Edwardian Furniture & Interiors.

In 1890, at the age of 18, Ambrose Heal was apprenticed to Messrs Plucknett of Warwick where he worked at the bench and learned to appreciate the qualities and characteristics of timber.

According to Anthony Heal, Ambrose's son, "Plucknett's work was solidly built and soundly made and they were (sic) evidently not uninfluenced by the new ideas on furniture design that were beginning to develop".

After two years at Plucknett's, Heal was sent to work at Graham and Biddle of Oxford Street where he spent six months seeing something of the London furniture trade and gaining vital experience of commercial methods of production.

In 1893 Ambrose Heal junior joined the family firm Heal & Son. Like William Morris and others in the Arts & Crafts Movement, Heal was born into a wealthy family, although the family business was to be of far greater significance than Morris's source of wealth.

While it is important not to overstate the part played by this wealth in Ambrose's development, it is nonetheless necessary to recognise it. Without the indulgence of his father in the first instance, Ambrose Heal would not have had the opportunity to market his 'simple bedroom furniture' to such a wide audience.

It is testament to the strength and quality of his early designs and the skills of the cabinet makers employed to produce them, coupled with their marketing and the huge public response to them, that Ambrose Heal, in the space of a few years, moved from a small corner of the Tottenham Court Road shop to become the dominant force in the firm's future direction.

In the Heal & Son catalogue of 1897, in which we see for the first time some of Ambrose Heal's work, there is a short unsigned item entitled 'A Consideration of the Wooden Bedstead'. Without doubt it was written or commissioned by Ambrose Heal himself and clearly aimed at those drawn to the Arts & Crafts Movement.

The interesting thing about this article is not so much its expounding of the ideas of good design and the use of sound material employed in the construction of the St Ives & Newlyn suites but of its dismissal of other designs.

It quotes the designer and architect W R Lethaby approvingly: "Louis oh ornaments - 'that crawling slime ornament' (cheap vulgar brass mounts) what crimes have been committed in thy name". It seems to be suggesting that the designs in other sections of the catalogue in which it appears should be discard by anyone with a discerning eye.

The catalogue of 1897 also recommends Gleeson White's booklet 'A Note on Simplicity of Design in Furniture for Bedrooms' which Heal & Son distributed free to customers upon request.

Such was the demand for the designs that in 1899 Heal & Son opened a new electrically-powered furniture workshop attached to the premises. The workshop could be visited by customers and the catalogue notes:

"Whilst taking advantage of all that is best in machinery, we have been careful not to allow the taint of the usual trade machine furniture to invade the workshop. We are in fact most careful to give free expression to that individual craftsmanship and excellence of working-ship without which no cabinet work, whatever its designs, can hope to be in any real sense - artistic."

It went on to inform its reader that the metalwork of the pieces was completed by Heal & Son's own smiths and that its "cabinet makers are the best liberal wages can command".

This was not merely clever advertising. The quality of the pre-war craftsmanship was of a high standard. Clearly Heal worked closely with those involved in the production of his designs, and enthused them with his own desire to produce work of outstanding quality.

Missing from the catalogue however is an explanation of the clear transformation in the quality of the work Heal & Son produced. This is to be found in what has been called an 'accident of history'. Ambrose Heal has no hesitation in saying so himself in a speech given in 1953 he said:

"I had been having some difficulty in getting my furniture made in our own workshops and here I was in luck meeting Ashbee just before he moved his Guild of Handicraft from Mile End to Chipping Campden ... and it so happened that his foreman Adams, a splendid craftsman, and a few of the cabinet makers were unwilling to uproot themselves from London and came to me. These formed the nucleus of my new furniture venture in Tottenham Court Road".

Is it too bold to suggest that a number of the craftsmen who were to form the ironwork shop at Heal's were also former members of Ashbee's Guild of Handicrafts?.

By the early 1900's Ambrose Heal was established as a key designers of British furniture. In 1900 he exhibited at the Paris International Exhibition, where we see for the first time the use of the chequered inlay that was to become his trademark, and where Heal was awarded two silver medals. 

In 1901 he exhibited at the Glasgow exhibition and in 1904 Heal & Son produced an entire catalogue of his work entitled 'Simple Bedroom Furniture in Chesnut and Oak designed by Ambrose Heal' .

This work fulfilled perfectly the demands of the expanding middle classes and, as Jeremy Cooper has pointed out, "was particularly suited to the new Garden City developments".

It was no surprise that Heal's work was selected for the Letchworth Garden City Exhibition by Gimson's friend F W Troup in 1905.

Praise for his work came from all quarters, the modernist Nikolaus Pevsner wrote that it was good progressive furniture ... living amongst such objects, we breathe a fresher air".

Even after the slaughter of the first world war had abated and signalled the end of an era, Ambrose Heal continued to innovate. The designs of his 'Reasonable Furniture' of 1919 continued in a similar vein to those of before 1914, even if shortages and economies introduced more 'sub-standard' materials into their structure.

Whereas Morris had rejected the futility of utopian workshops and of competing with other producers, Ambrose Heal, who was not attracted to the socialist arm of the Arts & Crafts Movement, was able to go further.

Sir Gordon Russell talked of Ambrose Heal's holding 2his ground valiantly at the confluence of two great rivers of thought. By far the strongest was that which seemed all powerful at the time and promised great riches - the exploitation of scientific development, of new materials and techniques - a fascinating and exhilarating vista ... He saw clearly that unless it was balanced by the constant refreshment of humane thought it was potentially a great source of danger".

This meant in practice that he was able to exploit the paternalism of his family firm and the skill of the guild workers, alongside growing technical innovation, expanding demand and his own vision, to supply in relatively large quantities and at reasonable prices, the sound well made furniture the Movement so desired. For this we owe him a great debt.    

Copyright Jeff Jackson 1998

Bibliography: World Furniture - Charles Hanley Read; Sir Ambrose Heal - Centenary commemoration booklet; At The Sigh Of The Four Poster, A History Of Heals - Susanna Goodden; Good Citzens Furniture - Annette Carruthers & Mary Greensted; Victorian & Edwardian Furniture & Interiors -  Jeremy Cooper; Mobilia - Sptember 1964 issue, Sir Gordon Russell article; 'A Note on Simplicity of Design in Furniture for Bedrooms' - Gleeson White; Utopian Craftsmen - Lionel Lambourne; Heal & Son Archive material - V&A Art and Design Archive.