| Husband: | John Harris Heal (1811-1876) | |
| Wife: | Anne Standerwick Heal (1810-1890) | |
| Children: | John Heal (1844-1915) | |
| Marriage | 28 Oct 1834 | South Stoke, Somerset |
| Name: | John Harris Heal | |
| Sex: | Male | |
| Father: | - | |
| Mother: | - | |
| Birth | 7 Feb 1811 | Middlesex |
| Baptism | 19 May 1811 (age 0) | St Anne Soho, Westminster, Middlesex |
| Census | 1851 (age 39-40) | Bedding manufacturer, 62, Euston Square, Saint Pancras |
| Census | 1861 (age 49-50) | Bedding manufacturer, Grass Farm, Finchley, Middlesex |
| Death | 19 Feb 1876 (age 65) | Cannes, France |
| Name: | Anne Standerwick Heal | |
| Sex: | Female | |
| Father: | - | |
| Mother: | - | |
| Birth | 26 Apr 1810 | St Pancras, Middlesex |
| Death | 30 Mar 1890 (age 79) | Finchley, Middlesex |
| Name: | John Heal | |
| Sex: | Male | |
| Spouse: | Anne Dolamore (1843-1928) | |
| Birth | 21 Aug 1844 | 196 Tottenham Court Rd, London |
| Baptism | 29 Nov 1844 (age 0) | St Giles in the Fields, St Pancras, Middlesex |
| Census | 1851 (age 6-7) | Living with parents |
| Census | 1891 (age 46-47) | Leather merchant, Hertford House, East End Road, Finchley |
| Death | 26 Apr 1915 (age 70) | St Mary's Hospital, Paddington |
Heal & Sons is one of Britain’s leading furniture makers. It was founded as a business for the supply of bedding in 1810 by John Harris Heal in 33 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 1833, Fanny Heal (his widow) and John Harris Heal the younger formed a successful partnership and expanded their premises considerably in 1840.
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.
On his death in 1876, 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.
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 pioneered the mass production of furniture based on simple design and construction, and enabled ordinary people 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.
http://www.adam-matthew-publications.co.uk/collections_az/Heals-Catalogues/description.aspx
http://www.heals.co.uk/Press-Releases/Heals-2010-Media-Update/pcat/2010mediaupdate
accessed 22.4.2010