# 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