Heal & Son Ltd

AE Gray had a long association with Heal & Son and, in particular, with Harry Trethowan, manager of Heal’s pottery and glass department. These two men were regularly working alongside each other on committees charged with ‘improving art in industry’ and ‘raising the standards of product design for the home’. They both sat on the influential 1931 Gorell Committee. Press coverage July 1931.

Trethowan wrote a most affectionate letter to Gray on his 80th birthday in 1951 (above). To assist reading, the text is transcribed (right).

Two Press articles are worthy of note in the context of the association and influence between Gray’s Pottery and Heal & Son:

Pottery and Glass March 1946, page 7:
Harry Trethowan records memories of his career. He mentions various people with whom he had formed important links (such as), Ronald & Gresham Copeland, AE Gray, William Moorcroft and Frank Wedgwood.

Pottery and Glass June 1953, page 182:
…. an article on the pottery and glass department of Heal & Son Ltd …. The department has become renowned in the pottery and glass trade for the development of its own tableware patterns, in fact, Heal’s trade was largely built up on these exclusive, mainly hand-decorated designs. They were developed in conjunction with great names in the pottery trade such as Wedgwood, Copelands, George Jones, Carter Stabler & Adams, and Grays Pottery.