Pitkin & Brooks

Pitkin & Brooks was a china and glass business in Chicago that began operating in 1872 and was incorporated in 1891. The company established a cutting shop at Bowling Green, OH, known as the Ohio Cut Glass Company (from sometime before 1904 to 1912) and also one at Valparaiso, IN (1911-1918). The Bowling Green factory probably provided most of the company’s cut glass, but inventory was likely supplemented with purchases from independent, local cutters and from abroad. Pitkin & Brooks apparently had a business association with the H. C. Fry Glass Company but details are lacking. The company went out of business about 1920, soon after the death of its senior partner, Edward Hand Pitkin.

Apparently the only trademark found acid-etched on glass is the one shown above, on the right. At least one other trademark, more elaborately designed (“Diamond cut glass / P&B”) has been found in the company’s catalogs. It could have been used on a paper label and in advertising copy.