Pye, Edward

Lancaster, and Preston, Lancs.; cabinet maker and draftsman (fl.1801-17)

He was the son of James Pye of Lancaster, husbandman.  Free of Lancaster, 1801–02, but by this period living in Preston. Returned to Lancaster and is named in the Gillow Archive in 1801-06, 1808 and 1813–17. He signed a  drawing of a bookcase in the 1792 Journeymen's Price Agreement ‘Edward Pye Sculptor’ and dated it Sept. 1806. He also wrote his name in pencil on another page together with the date 1811. An early 19th century chamber table in a private collection stamped GILLOWS LANCASTER on the drawer edge and inscribed in pencil ‘Pye’ on the drawer bottom is probably his work. His signature ‘Edwd. Pye’ and the date ‘July 9th 1812’, also in pencil, appear under a drawer in a mahogany dwarf wardrobe in the dressing room off the Silk Dressing Room at Tatton Park, Cheshire, the same year he also signed his name on a mahogany night table at Heveningham, Suffolk, with the date ‘April 30th 1812’; the table is identical to others at Tatton Park.

Sources: DEFM; Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London (2008), II, p. 272.