(George) Heywood Maunoir Sumner
Born 14 October 1853
Died 21 December 1940
Active: 1879 - 1910
Country of birth and death: England
Modeller, illustrator, printmaker, designer, archaeologist
Born in Old Alresford, Hampshire. He originally studied classics and modern history at Oxford. In 1879 he met the art metal designer W.A.S. Benson and through him came under the influence of William Morris.
Sumner went on to become an etcher, illustrator and a designer in a wide range of media including: textiles, wallpapers, tapestries, tesserae, painted gesso, and stained glass. However he is best known as the leading English exponent of the technique of sgraffito, a method of decorating walls by incising designs on coloured plaster. Sumner decorated eleven churches and several private houses in this way.
He was a founder of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society and an early Master of the Art Workers' Guild. Sumner was a self-taught archaeologist and from about 1900 increasingly focused on this work. He conducted a number of excavations near his home in the New Forest and published a number of books on his findings. Sumner died at home.
Wealth at death: £2,453 6s. 8d.
Probate date: 20 March 1941
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.
Designed Roundel in gesso for a screen in a church at Newcastle
also lacquered by Sumner
Modelled Roundel in gesso for a screen in a church at Newcastle
Architect of Roundel in gesso for a screen in a church in Newcastle
also coloured by Sumner
Modelled Roundel in gesso for a screen in a church in Newcastle
in collaboration with Osmund Weeks
Part of a gesso memorial tablet erected in Kermerton Church, Gloucestershire (replica)
Locations
Address The Hill House Chalfont Slough | View on map
1888 (Presumed)
Address 1 Notting Hill Square W, London | View on map
1889 (Presumed)
Address 9 Aubrey Road Campden Hill Square London | View on map
1894 (Presumed) - 1904 (Presumed)
Listed as 2 Campden Hill Square in 1894 list of ACES members.
Address Cuckoo Hill South Gorley Fordingbridge | View on map
1904 (Presumed) - 1938 (Presumed)
Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards and other Events
Exhibited at Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society: First Exhibition, 1888
'Judith'
Exhibited at Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society: Second Exhibition, 1889
'Part of a gesso memorial tablet erected in Kermerton Church, Gloucestershire (replica)'
Exhibited at Art Workers Guild, Third Exhibition, 1905
Speaker at Tradition in Art (Art Workers Guild), 1895
Speaker at Stucco Duro and Scrafitto (Art Workers Guild), 1901
Speaker at The Consideration of Painting and Sculpture by Architects (Art Workers Guild), 1905
Institutional and Business Connections
Associated with Century Guild of Artists
1884
Duration of this connection not known
Master of Art Workers Guild
1894
Member of The Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society
1888 - 1938 (Presumed)
Committee member from at least 1888-1900.
Personal and Professional Connections
Collaborated with Richard Llewellyn Benson Rathbone
And CFA Voysey, according to Bennett (1981)
Collaborated with Osmund Weeks
1888 (Presumed)
On submissions to the 1888 exhibition of the ACES.
Sources
Art Workers Guild Annual Reports, 1885-1900
1895, p.7.
Art Workers Guild Annual Reports, 1901-1912
1901, p.6; 1905, p.4, p.9.
Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society: List of Members, 1894
1894
Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society: List of Members, 1897
1897
Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society: List of Members, 1904
1904
Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society: List of Members, 1907
1907
Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society: Rules and List of Members, 1920
1920
p.7.
Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society. List of Members, 1898
1898
Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society. List of Members, 1899
1899
Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society. List of Members, 1900
1900
Arts and Crafts Society: Catalogue of the First Exhibition.
1888
p.98, p.100, pp.126-127, p.130, p.132, p.139, p.171.
Arts and Crafts Society: Catalogue of the Second Exhibition.
1889
p.116, p.118, p.162, p.175, p.194, pp.225-226, p.242.
Four voting papers for election of members and of committee at annual meeting, 19th December 1893
1893
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
2004
Jane Barbour, ‘Sumner, (George) Heywood Maunoir (1853–1940)’, rev. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 ;online edn, Oct 2007 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/38033, accessed 13 Aug 2010]
Citing this record
'(George) Heywood Maunoir Sumner', 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_1209418144, accessed 30 May 2023]
