History of Puritan Values
Since 1998, Puritan Values has grown into one of the United Kingdom’s leading centres for The Arts and Crafts Movement, Aesthetic Movement, Anglo Japanese, Gothic Revival and Decorative Arts from circa 1850 to circa 1950. Based in the historic Dome building in Southwold, our showrooms hold one of the largest curated collections of art furniture and architectural antiques in the British Isles.
About Puritan Values
Puritan Values opened at The Dome in January 1998. A striking Art Deco-style building, which Tony carefully restored, retaining its original character and coastal charm.
Inside, we installed an original Art Nouveau staircase salvaged from a London tenement in Chelsea. It was restored and adapted to fit the building. The original pine Tongue and Groove panelling covering the walls and ceilings was retained, preserving the history and atmosphere of the interior.
The Dome contains over 13,500 square feet of retail and display space, and further showrooms in Hackney Wick full of aesthetic period furniture and decorative works of art for interiors and gardens.
About Tony Geering
After school, I did a four-year engineering apprenticeship with British Road Services and studied at Bury St Edmunds Technical College. At 20, I moved into the Oil and Gas Industry with Vetco Grey, designing and installing wellheads and entire shutdown systems that are still used internationally today. At 24, driven by a lifelong passion for art and antiques, I left the industry to pursue this calling full-time, and I never looked back.
My early years were spent in auction houses such as Durrant’s in Beccles and at Brick Lane Market in East London during the early 1990s. These formative years were a true apprenticeship for me, welcomed in amongst seasoned dealers whose knowledge, experience and stories helped me shape the foundations of Puritan Values.
House and estate clearances followed, revealing both valuable antiques and the personal histories behind them, where I gained a wide knowledge of art and antiques because every clearance was so different, there were so many different things to learn about and understand the value of. Yet from the outset, my attention was drawn to, and in turn I became increasingly focused on the Arts and Crafts and the Aesthetic Movements. Its honesty, craftsmanship, beauty, it's history drawing from the mediaeval romanticism of the past and what it stood for ''art for arts sake'', to all, remain what has always inspired me and continues to guide the philosophy of me, Puritan Values, and my passionate team who are Puritan Values today, and who all also inspire me in so many different ways.