William Aumonier Senior

Born 21 June 1839
Died 21 January 1914

Active: 1851 - 1906

Country of birth and death: England

Wood carver, stone carver, architectural sculptor

Born in Highgate, London. The Aumoniers were an artistic family of Huguenot descent. William was the son of John Henry Collingwood Aumonier (c.1799-1848, born and died in London), goldsmith and jeweller. After his father's death, he, his mother and brothers lived with their uncle, William Stacy (born c.1812 in Lambeth), a diamond jeweller. William Aumonier Senior's brother, James (born c.1831) became a landscape painter and designer, the other two brothers were a successful machine and tool maker (Henry born c.1828) and a master paper stainer (Frederick (born c.1837).

William served his apprenticeship with Colman and Davis of George Street, Portman Square, London. At the age of nineteen he went to Paris to work in the studios of M. Cruchet, M. Kaltenhauser, M. Fourdinois among others. Later he was employed by M. Duthoit of Amiens to work on the restoration of the Cathedral under the direction of Viollet-le-Duc. Returning to London he became associated with Alfred Stevens in the studios of Leonard Coleman.

In 1876, encouraged by the architect John McKean Brydon (1840-1901) Aumonier established a firm of architectural sculptors and carvers in New Inn Yard, Tottenham Court Road. Among the principal buildings in which he carried out work are: the Municipal Buildings, Art Gallery, Technical Schools and Pump Room extension at Bath (under John McKean Brydon); Victoria Law Courts, Birmingham (under Aston Webb and Ingress Bell, some of Aumonier's work for this building was shown at the Royal Academy, see below); the Municipal Buildings, Oxford (under Henry T. Hare); and Oriel College, Oxford which was his last work. Other works included: the Bishop's Throne, Sedilia, and Fald Stool in St. Paul's Cathedral (for Bodley and Garner); Sunderland House for the Duke of Marlborough; Kingsgate Castle for Lord Avebury (under Romaine-Walker and Besant); the United University Club, Pall Mall; Moundsmere Manor and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford (both for Reginald Blomfield).

William Senior's eldest son, William Junior (1869-1943) joined the business by 1891 and continued it after his father died in 1914. His children included the writer, Stacy Aumonier (1877-1928), Minnie (born c.1866), a costume designer and Edith (born c.1868), an art needlework designer artist working for an ecclesiastical furnisher in 1901.

Wealth at death: £12,279 4s. 4d.
Probate date: 20 March 1914

Citing this record

'William Aumonier Senior', 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_1206482476, accessed 30 May 2023]