Pitt, Cecil

London; upholsterer, appraiser and auctioneer (fl. 1754–95)

It is possible that he was the Pitt who was trading as an upholsterer from an address on London Bridge, 1747–49. At ‘The Rising Sun & Fox’, five doors from the corner of New Broad Street, Moorfields in 1754. A trade card from this period in the Leverhulme Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, states that he bought and sold ‘all manner of Household Goods as Standing Beds & Bedding, Chests of Drawers, Desks & Book Cases, Buroe desks, Card, Dining, Breakfast & Dressing Tables (in Mahogany, Walnuttree or Wainscot) Chairs of all sorts, Sette, and Buroe Bedsteads, Sconces, Pair Chimney & dressing Glasses, with all manner of Upholstery Cabinet & Brasier Goods: new & Old’. The elaborate frame of this trade card is identical with that of Samuel Phene, who was trading in the same area of London at this period, and may suggest some degree of co-operation between the two makers.

By the mid 1760s Pitt had changed his trade sign to that of ‘The Royal Tent’, and gave his address in Moorfields as ‘four doors from the corner of New Broad Street and almost facing Bedlam Walk’. When the streets were numbered this address became 10 Brookers Row, Moorfields and directories show him at this location (1767–75). The number changed to 11 (1775–81), 13 (1782–88), 23 (1790– 91) and back to 13 (1792–95).

From 1769 the business traded as Pitt & Chessey (late Rodwell). By the mid 1770s there was more than one member of the Pitt family involved and in 1775 the business was known as Pitt, Pitt & Chessey and in 1777 as Pitt, Chessey & Pitt.

Cecil Pitt took apprentices between 1754–75.

Image

Copyright (Attribution/Credit)

British Museum

His trade card giving ‘The Royal Tent’, Moorfields address, states that he dealt generally in household goods, new and secondhand, and made bed furniture and curtains, c. 1760-1775 [Banks,28.120]. © The Trustees of the British Museum

Many members of this family were in the upholstery trade in London. A John Pitt, possibly his father, traded at ‘The Rising Sun’, Moorfields (1714–26). Another John Pitt was at 25 New Broad Street (1781–84); and a James Pitt traded in the area, c.1760 and (1808–37); and a Pitt & Son, (1813–19). 

Source: DEFM