RARE ARTS AND CRAFTS HEALS FURNITURE AT DUKES OF DORCHESTER

The Famous Tottenham Court Road retailer Heals is well known today for fine quality and interesting furniture and furnishings. The early success and fame of the firm was largely the work of the hugely energetic and creative Ambrose Heal. It was Ambrose who decided that the items sold in the shop should reflect the most interesting and innovative of the latest design ideas. To ensure his ideals were made a reality, he took to designing the furniture himself. Using the influence of his hundred-year old family business name, Ambrose created designs that at the time were seen as strikingly modern and Avant garde. Taking his lead from the Arts and Crafts movement the designs were in simple native timbers with clearly expose hinges and locks, and elegant, clean touches. They may have been surprisingly progressive in the 1890’s but today they are highly sought after by collectors who consider those pieces designed by Ambrose Heal at the turn of the century to be amongst the best of the firms output.

Duke’s are delighted to be including nine pieces of exceptional early Heals furniture in their auction on 23rd of February. The majority have been consigned by a collector who has been able, by careful acquisition over many years, to amass some of the best examples in existence. Ranging from tables, to mirrors, chairs and wardrobes, estimates range from around £400 up to over £3,000.