Ambrose Heal
The Signboards of Old London Shops
1947 Batsford 
First Edition First Impression
Limited Edition one of 1000 copies (see reverse of title page in photos).
Condition - Book: Good, red cloth boards black cloth spine, stamped design. See photos.
Condition - Wrapper: fair, with losses, tears and creases and shelf wear, as per photos. Note that the wrapper is also rare in any form. Not price clipped. See photos.
UK and US buyers. US interest please note the shipping cost. 
A rather rare academic volume with profuse illustrations many from the authors personal colllection. 

Sir Ambrose Heal 1872 – 1959, was an English furniture designer and businessman in the first half of the 20th century. He served as the chairman of Heal's (then called Heal & Son) from 1913 to 1953.

Apart from work interests, he collected London historical ephemera, mainly from the 17th and 18th centuries, including records of tradesmen, goldsmiths, calligraphers, signboards and furniture makers. His collection of trade-cards is preserved at the British Museum. He was the author of five books: London Tradesmen's Cards of the XVIII Century (1925), The English Writing Masters and their Copy Books (1931), The London Goldsmiths (1935), Signboards of Old London Shops (1947), The London Furniture Makers (1953). In addition The Records of the Heal Family was printed for private circulation. He contributed articles on a variety of topics in connection with his historical research to publications such as The Connoisseur and Country Life.

Heal died on 15 November 1959 in Beaconsfield. His Times obituary describes him as "one of the great artists and craftsmen of his time". The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography article by Alan Crawford describes this as "very wide of the mark" and accounts of his life and work as prone to hagiography, "but it showed what a powerful image he had created for his shop, and thus for himself". An English Heritage blue plaque commemorating Heal was placed at The Fives Court on Moss Lane in Pinner, North London, in 2013.