Heal & Son Victorian Chest of Drawers

A splendid early Victorian period chest of drawers by Heal & Son of London. Of generous proportions and of excellent construction in solid mahogany with attractive satinwood veneers and mahogany drawer linings. With a series of 2 short over 4 long, graduated drawers. All drawers fitted with their original solid mahogany bun handles.  Sympathetically repolished in our workshops to a very high standard. Now offered for sale in excellent condition, ready to go straight into the home.

Dimensions:
Width 122cms
Depth 52cms
Height 120cms

Heal’s story began in 1810 when John Harris Heal, a feather dyer from the West Country, opened a shop at 33 Rathbone Place in 1810 (the business moved to its famous Tottenham Court Road location eight years later). Heal’s first incarnation was as a mattress business, selling French-style, feather-filled versions at a time when many people slept on straw palettes.

After John died in 1833 his widow renamed the business Fanny Heal & Son and with their son, also named John Harris, set about putting Heal’s on the map. The latter spotted the importance of marketing and saw the potential in advertising and, in 1837, promoted the shop on the back cover of Dickens’ novel, Bleak House – one of the first retailers to do so.

Heal’s Family Business
His grandson Ambrose Heal (1872-1959) joined the company in 1893, having completed an apprenticeship as a cabinet maker. His contribution expanded the business into a wider range of furniture, including beds, dressers, and tables. With an entrepreneurial eye finely attuned to demand, much of his output was simple oak furniture, which was fashionable with the ‘weekend cottage’ set at the turn of the century.

By the end of the 20th century, Heal’s ranked alongside Waring & Gillow and Maple & Co. as one of the best-known London furniture houses. Ambrose believed in modernity and combined a functional aestheticism with a conviction that affordable furniture produced in large-scale workshops could still be of a good quality.