Hugh Hutton Stannus
Born 21 March 1840
Died 18 August 1908
Active: 1854 - 1901
Country of birth and death: England
Art metal worker, architect, teacher
Born in Sheffield of an Irish family. Died at his home, The Cottage, Hindhead.
He was apprenticed to Hoole & Co. where he learnt art metal casting. Some of his designs were selected for the International Exhibition at Kensington of 1862. At Hoole's Stannus met Alfred Stevens who was then chief designer. Stannus became Stevens' pupil, assistant and devoted friend. They worked together on the monument to the Duke of Wellington (1856–1912) and in 1891 published 'Alfred Stevens and his Work'.
Around 1870, Stannus began training as an architect. From the age of forty to sixty he worked primarily as a teacher including evening classes at the Architectural Association.
Stannus belonged to many societies including: the Hellenic Society; the Japan Society; the St Paul's Ecclesiological Society; the Society of Arts and Crafts; and to the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings. a
An ‘Essay on the history of founding in brass, copper, and bronze’ won him in 1881 the freedom and livery of the Founders' Company, of which he became a sub-warden in 1907.
Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards and other Events
Speaker at Bronze Founding (Art Workers Guild), 1885
Spoke after lecture.
Speaker at The Artistic Use of Constructive Ironwork (Art Workers Guild), 1890
Speaker at Greek Sculptured Sepulchral Monuments (Art Workers Guild), 1905
Speaker at The Development of the Corinthian Capital (Art Workers Guild), 1908
Took part in Second Continental Expedition of the Guild (Art Workers Guild), 1894
Institutional and Business Connections
Donor to Art Workers Guild
1888
Gave a chair
Lectured at Slade School of Fine Art
September 1890
Listed as lecturer in applied art.
Member of Art Workers Guild
1885 - 1908
Committee member 1887-1889.
Teacher at Royal Academy Schools
13 December 1881 - 1 October 1901
Appointed as teacher of 'the newly-established Class of Modelling for Architects', with a salary of £50 a year in 1881. See Royal Academy 'Annual Report, 1881', (1882), p. 18. The 1901 report records that Stannus 'resigned his appointment as Teacher in the School of Modelling for Architects', on the 1 October 1901. See 'Annual Report, 1901', (1902), p. 16.
Teacher at Manchester School of Art
1900 - 1902
Director of architectural studies,
Personal and Professional Connections
Assistant to Alfred George Stevens
Stannus was Stevens' pupil and then his assistant, they met whilst both were working for Hoole & Co in Sheffield
Sources
Annual Programme Cards, 1884-1934
Art Workers Guild Annual Reports, 1885-1900
1889, p.13; 1890, p.6; 1894, p.6.
Art Workers Guild Annual Reports, 1901-1912
1905, p.6; 1908, p.5.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
2004
Paul Waterhouse, ‘Stannus, Hugh Hutton (1840–1908)’, rev. John Elliott, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/36252, accessed 21 Dec 2009]
University College London. Calendar. Session 1890-1891
1890
p. 83.
Citing this record
'Hugh Hutton Stannus', 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_1213006561, accessed 31 Jan 2023]
