Pryke & Palmer



Pryke & Palmer Ltd. was a company of ironmongers and builders' merchants, in the City of London, England. Their illustrated and extensive catalogues (a 1 November 1894 edition in Australia's Caroline Simpson Library has 782 pages ) have become sought-after by collectors, with some reproduced in facsimile editions.

In 1925 the company's Chairman, William Robert Pryke (1847-1932), served as Lord Mayor of London and was subsequently created a Baronet. His son, Dudley Pryke (1882–1959), later 2nd Baronet, spent his entire life working for the firm, rising to be managing director.

Their catalogues show them as located at 40 & 41, Upper Thames Street, London E.C. 4. They also had premises at Broken Wharf, in the Port of London, nearby. By 1930, they had showrooms on Newman Street/Oxford Street, in central London.

Products
An idea of the vast range of products made or stocked by Pryke & Palmer can be gleaned from their 807-page "Catalogue of General Hardware", circa 1920, held by the Museum of English Rural Life:

"baby carriages and invalid carriages

barometers

bathroom accessories

baths, basins and closet suites

bell fittings

bicycles

blow lamps

boilers and hot water pipes

bolts and nails

braces and drills

bricklayers', plasterers', slaters' and glaziers' tools

brushes

buckets

builders' accessories

carpenters' tools

ceiling centres

cisterns

coachbuilders' ironmongery

coal bunkers

coal vases

coffee mills

coffin furniture

constructional ironwork

cramps and vices

curtain and picture fittings

door and window furniture

drain cleaning and testing equipment

drilling machines

dustbins

electric light fittings

electric wire and motors

fancy glass

fire brigade equipment

firescreens

floor, wall and fireside tiles

flour bins

food choppers

forges

fountains

furniture

garden accessories

garden rollers

garden seats and tables

gas burners and pendants

grindstones

hammers

hinges

hobs and grates

hollow ware

hooks

household articles

iron gates and railings

kerbs and mantel pieces

lawn mowers

leaded lights

lifting tackle

locks

measuring equipment

metals

money registers

morticing, boring and tenoning machines

nameplates

nuts

oil colour and varnish

paint accessories

paperhangers' equipment

picks and shovels

pipes

planes

plumbers' and tinmens' tools

printing equipment

pulleys

pumps

radiators

ranges and cooking stoves

refrigerators

road lamps

road making equipment

safes, strong room doors and cash boxes

saws

scissors, cutlery and electroplated articles

sewing machines

shop window fittings

slate, marble, iron and wood chimney pieces

sliding door gear

stable fittings and requisites

steam fittings

stencilling equipment

stoves

taps and cocks

telephones

thermometers

tools

trunks and cases

umbrella stands

ventilators and drain covers

washing machines

water pails

weighing machines

wheelbarrows"