Heal and Co (Ambrose Heal) Arts & Crafts Oak Letchworth Chair c. 1905

Heal and Co (Ambrose Heal): One of the first Arts and Crafts makes to bring efficient business processes to the design and production of quality furniture. Sir Ambrose Heal had the vision to work with the most skilled craftspeople of the day, creating furniture that was comfortable, beautiful – reflecting the ideals of the Arts and Crafts Movement but at a more affordable price. Today Heals furniture from the period 1900 to 1940 is highly prized

English Oak: The most British of woods, that can produce really special results. English oak has been used for hundreds of years to construct everything from sea-going vessels to fine furniture. Although oak grows widely across Europe and North America, craftsmen continue to cherish English oak which grows more slowly than its foreign counterparts giving it strength, durability. Quarter sawn boards are very straight grained and have distinctive growth rings and medullary rays that give a very beautiful effect as well as being renowned for their superior stability and strength

The Arts and Crafts Movement produced some of the most remarkable furniture of the twentieth century. Many of its principal designers were architects motivated by principles of functional and beautiful design, high class workmanship, and quality of materials. The results varied from the austerity of Voysey and the simple lines perspectives of the Cotswold School, to the exuberant flair of Liberty and Co. and Ambrose Heal