Smith, Elliot

Sidney Street, Cambridge; cabinet maker and upholder (b.1782–fl.1830)

Smith was from a Cambridge family of furniture makers but in 1797 at the age of fifteen was apprenticed for five years to Thomas Smith of Norwich for a premium of £50, which he completed in 1803. He then joined his half-brother, John, as partner in the family cabinet-making business in Cambridge. 

He also took on the position of agent for Cambridge for the recently founded (c.1797) Norwich Union insurance company. He placed advertisements in Norwich newspapers between 1803 and 1808 for sawyers experienced at cutting veneers and cabinet makers. In a notice in the Norfolk Chronicle of 4 October 1806 he advertised for journeymen cabinet makers and agreed to pay the Norwich 1801 rates, although he was the only Cambridge cabinet maker to do so. 

He was the principal furniture supplier to St John's College until 1830 when he gave up the trade. John Swan, his employee for thirteen years, established his own cabinet making and upholstery warehouse in Sidney Street (next door to that of Elliot Smith), in October 1831 and took on some of Smith's work and former employees.

Source: DEFM; Williams, ‘An introduction to the 1801 Cabinet & Chair Makers' Norwich Book of Prices’, Furniture History (2016).