Joseph Armitage
Born 1880
Died 15 July 1945
Active: 1901 - 1945
Country of birth and death: England
Wood carver, stone carver, architectural sculptor, architect's assistant, teacher, lecturer
Born in Batley, Yorkshire. He was the son of Edward Armitage (born c.1849 in Batley), house painter and employer. He worked as an architect's assistant and then became a wood carver. After a period teaching in Leicester he relocated to London and established a successful practice in Westminster and then Lambeth.
Armitage's commissions included carving the 'King's Beasts' for the exterior pinnacles of St. George's Chapel, Windsor (during the restoration of the chapel between 1920-28, architect, Sir Harold Brakspear), the oak leaf symbol for the National Trust, which he secured through an open competition (1936), the coat of arms for Rhodesia House, which was cast by Doulton and Co. (1937), a plaque to distinguish trees planted for the coronation (1937), emblems of shipping and commerce for the new Chamber of Shipping designed by L.G. Farquhar of Burnet, Tait and Lorne (1940).
The architect Herbert Baker was an important patron and one of their early collaborations is the memorial to W.G. Grace in St. John's Wood Road, outside Lord's Cricket Ground (unveiled in 1923). Many of the high profile commissions for architectural carvings Armitage received from Baker were projects that also incorporated important sculptures by Charles Wheeler. Among these projects are: the memorial at Neuve Chapelle commemorating Indian soldiers who died in the First World War (1927); the sculptural scheme for India House (1930); the ornamental carving in stone and wood, as well as decorative plasterwork, for the Bank of England (1933); and architectural carvings of animals and plants on the exterior of South Africa House (1933). He lived at Strand-on-the-Green House in Chiswick and may have died at home.
Works
Dates are usually the year a work was exhibited so may differ from date of production.
New entries have been made each time a work was exhibited. Click here for more information.
Carved A drawing-room fire-place
Wood-carving.
Locations
Address Strand-on-the-Green House Chiswick London | View on map
This was his home address from at least the mid-1930s to his death
Address 145 Cold Bath Road Harrogate | View on map
1901 (Circa)
Address 66 Friar Lane Leicester | View on map
1910 (Presumed)
Address 61 Eagle Street Holborn London | View on map
1920 (Presumed)
Address 207 Gray's Inn Road WC1 London | View on map
1923 - 1926
Address 8 Grosvenor Road Westminster London SW1 | View on map
1925 - 1928
1926, p.23; 1927, p.23; 1928, p.23.
Address 12 Page Street Westminster London SW1 | View on map
1928 - 1933 (Presumed)
Address 1 Lambeth High Street London SE1 | View on map
1934 - 1945 (Presumed)
Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards and other Events
Exhibited at Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society: Eleventh Exhibition, 1916
Multiple works
Involved in Type Design and Typography / Value of Pattern in Art (Art Workers Guild), 1924
Came into office as Honorary Secretary of Guild.
Speaker at Gesso and Plaster-Work (Art Workers Guild), 1914
Speaker at Trade Unions and Craftsmanship (Art Workers Guild), 1914
Speaker at The Influence of Race, Climate and Diet on Artistic Expression (Art Workers Guild), 1915
Speaker at Railway Stations and their Approaches (Art Workers Guild), 1916
Speaker at Bridges (Art Workers Guild), 1916
Speaker at Flower, Fruit and Leaf Forms in Decoration (Art Workers Guild), 1916
Speaker at Early Scroll Ornament and its Development (Art Workers Guild), 1923
Speaker at Type Design and Typography / Value of Pattern in Art (Art Workers Guild), 1924
Speaker at The Art of Islam (Art Workers Guild), 1926
Speaker at Colour in Relation to Our Crafts (Art Workers Guild), 1926
Speaker at Buddhist Art in Java (Art Workers Guild), 1927
Speaker at Foreign Influences in Modern Architecture (Art Workers Guild), 1927
Speaker at A Sculptor's View of History (Art Workers Guild), 1928
Speaker at Chinese Painting (Art Workers Guild), 1928
Speaker at Gothic Figure Sculpture (Art Workers Guild), 1930
Speaker at Sculpture on Buildings (Art Workers Guild), 1934
Speaker at St Sophia and the Recently Discovered Mosaics (Art Workers Guild), 1936
Speaker at Buildings and Sculpture in the Lost City of Angkor (Art Workers Guild), 1936
Speaker at Dravidian Temples and Temple Sculpture (Art Workers Guild), 1939
Took part in The Law and the Artist (Art Workers Guild), 1928
Institutional and Business Connections
Advisor to Ministry of Town and County Planning/Ministry of Works and Buildings
1943 - 1944 (Presumed)
The Ministries \'invited the Guild to send a Deputation to them and consequently a Sub-Committee of five members, being the Master (Professor A.E.Richardson, ARA), Past-Master Laurence A.Turner, Past-Master Gilbert Bayes, Bro.Joseph Armitage and Bro.Antony Gardner were elected by the Guild Committee as members of the Deputation and to consider the form that it should take\' Was part of sub-committee to answer questionnaire on \'Art Education\' from the Central School of Art and Design, on behalf of the Guild, together with H.Brownsword and A.Gardner [Sixtieth annual report of the committee of the Art Workers\' Guild, p.2].
Member of Art Workers Guild
May 1910 - July 1945
Member of committee from 1916-1917, honorary secretary from 1924-1928.
Was part of sub-committee to answer questionnaire on 'Art Education' from the Central School of Art and Design, on behalf of the Guild, together with Harold Brownsword and Anthony Gardner [Sixtieth annual report of the committee of the Art Workers\' Guild, p.1].
Died 1945.
Member of The Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society
1910 (Presumed) - 1938 (Presumed)
Not mentioned on membership list in 1932.
Teacher of woodcarving at Central School of Arts and Crafts
September 1920 - June 1921
Listed as a teacher of woodcarving in the School of Furniture.
Personal and Professional Connections
Collaborated with Francis D. Bedford
Collaborated with Henry Martineau Fletcher
Collaborated with George Percy Bankart
Descriptions of Practice
Listed under Sculptors The London Directory, 1930 Post Office/Kelly London Directories
p.1354
Occupation given in Census Returns of England and Wales, 1901
'Architects Assistant' (sic) worker
Occupation given in Census Returns of England and Wales, 1911
'Teacher - Art School - and Wood Carver, (Teacher) Municipal Art School, Wood carving Own Account'
Sources
Art Workers Guild Annual Reports, 1901-1912
1910, p.8.
Art Workers Guild Annual Reports, 1913-1933
1914, p.11; 1915, p.17; 1916, pp.7-8; 1923, p.5; 1924, p.24; 1925, p.6, p.23; 1926, pp.6-7, p.23; 1927, p.5, p.23; 1928, p.7, pp.9-10, p.23; 1929, p.23; 1930, p.9, p.25; 1931, p.25; 1932, p.27; 1933, p.28.
Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society: Rules and List of Members, 1920
1920
p.3.
Arts and Crafts Society: Catalogue of the Eleventh Exhibition.
1916
p.163, p.165, p.171, p.243.
Census Returns of England and Wales, 1891
2004
Class: RG12; Piece: 3521; Folio: 43; Page: 37; GSU roll: 6098631
Census Returns of England and Wales, 1901
2005
Class: RG13; Piece: 4052; Folio: 106; Page: 6
Census Returns of England and Wales, 1911
2011
RG14PN19322 RG78PN1152B RD407 SD3 ED58 SN282
England & Wales, Death Index: 1916-2007
2007
Name: Joseph Armitage
Birth Date: abt 1880
Date of Registration: Jul-Aug-Sep 1945
Age at Death: 65
Registration district: Brentford
Inferred County: Middlesex
Volume: 3a
Page: 268
London County Council Central School of Arts and Crafts. Prospectus and Time-Table of Session beginning 27 September 1920
27 September 1920
Unpaged timetable.
The fifty-first annual report of the committee of the Art-Workers' Guild, 1935
1935
p.13, p.29.
The fifty-sixth annual report of the committee of the Art-Workers' Guild, 1940
1940
p.16.
The fifty-third annual report of the committee of the Art-Workers' Guild, 1937
1937
p.16.
The London Directory, 1930 Post Office/Kelly London Directories
1930
p.1354
The sixtieth annual report of the committee of the Art-Workers' Guild, 1944
1944
pp.1-2.
The sixty-second annual report of the committee of the Art-Workers' Guild, 1946
1946
p.12.
The Times Digital Archive 1785-1985
2008
"The Indians In France." Times [London, England] 8 Oct. 1927:
AND "Art Periodicals." Times [London, England] 16 Mar. 1928: 20.
AND "India House." The Times (London, England), Wednesday, Jul 09, 1930; pg. 16; Issue 45560.
AND " Bank Of England. By Our Architectural Correspondent." The Times (London, England), Tuesday, Jun 20, 1933; pg. 41; Issue 46475.
AND "The National Trust Symbol." Times [London, England] 19 Feb. 1936: 9.
AND "South Africa House. By Our Architectural Correspondent." The Times (London, England), Thursday, Jun 22, 1933; pg. 15; Issue 46477.
AND "Southern Rhodesia." Times [London, England] 12 Jan. 1937: 14.
AND "Coronation Tree Planting." Times [London, England] 14 Jan. 1937: 15.
AND OUR ARCHITECTURAL CORRESPONDENT. "New Chamber Of Shipping." Times [London, England] 8 Feb. 1940: 6.
AND "Obituary." Times [London, England] 19 July 1945: 7. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 10 Aug. 2012.
Citing this record
'Joseph Armitage', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib2_1206481131, accessed 05 Jun 2023]
