Clement Heaton, an early member of A.H. Mackmurdo’s Century Guild, set up his company Heatons Cloisonné-Mosaic Ltd at 6 Berners Street, London in 1887, a year after selling his share in his father’s lucrative stained glass business Heaton, Butler & Bayne for £4,800.
He patented his enamelling technique in 1886, inspired by medieval techniques that precluded the firing process and instead used coloured cements: a mixture of resin, beeswax, sulphur marble dust and coloured pigments. Hardening over time, these cements could be polished to give the soft matt finish characteristic of Heaton’s work
