Hukin & Heath

(active 1855 – 1953)

Hukin & Heath was an important British manufacturer, active between 1855 and 1953, specializing in silver and electroplate. The company is best known for its skillfully manufactured reproductions of Persian and Japanese pieces, mainly silver and electroplated wares, that were produced under the guidance of Dr. Christopher Dresser. The production of the Hukin & Heath eastern-like pieces experienced its peak between the 1870s and 1880s.

The business was established in 1855 by Jonathan Wilson Hukin and John Thomas Heath. The company entered the market as manufacturing silversmiths and electroplaters. The company’s silver mark was entered in 1875 in the Birmingham Assay Office, which was followed by the entry of the mark of the firm’s founders, Jonathan Wilson Hukin and John Thomas Heath, in 1879 in the London Assay Office. By that time, Hukin & Heath already had several showrooms at 19 Charterhouse Street, Holborn, and a workshop at Imperial Works, Great Charles Street, Birmingham. As for the company’s trade mark, it combines the initials H & H, standing for Hukin & Heath, that is accompanied by an eagle.

One of the brightest pages of Hukin & Heath's history is the time when the company collaborated with Britain’s most famous independent designer, Dr. Christopher Dresser, who promoted and contributed enormously to the British Art Nouveau style, also referred to as the Anglo-Japanese style. The designs, elaborated by Dresser during his cooperation with Hukin & Heath, bore the H & H trademark as well. Even after the contract was over, the manufacturer kept making silver pieces with Dresser's designs.