An extremely capable, versatile designer, Harold Stabler's lengthy, illustrious career began in the Arts and Crafts movement and extended into the modernist era.
Stabler initially trained in woodwork and stone-carving before being appointed Head of Metalwork at the Keswick School of Industrial Arts in 1898. After a short time there and later at Liverpool University, he moved to London in 1907 where he was Head of the John Cass Institute’s Art School until 1937.
Stabler worked with a number of materials, including enamels, metalwork, glass and ceramics, producing designs for mass-production which had a notable influence on the development of modern English design of the 1920s and 30s. He exhibited extensively at The Art Worker’s Guild and in 1936 he was one of the first to be appointed a Designer for Industry by the Royal Society of Arts.