Victorian London : Mapping the Emergence of the Modern Art Gallery

Palser and Son

Jocelyn Palser is listed in The Year’s Art as an art dealer doing business at 9 King-street from at least 1881. The business may have been much older: an advertisement for Palser’s Gallery in the Times in 1897 claimed it was “Established 1800.”  (25 June 1897, 1) The gallery space at 9 and 10 King-street had been advertised in the Times on 23 December 1875: “To be Let, on Lease, or for short periods, together or separately, in one of the best situations in the West-end, the finest private exhibition galleries in London – two rooms with top light, one 60 ft. by 26 ft., the other 30 ft. by 26 ft., both communicating. The galleries are very well known to the public having been very largely advertised and visited during the past three years. Apply at the King-street galleries, 9 King-street.” (15). By the 1880s, the gallery at 10 King-street was being used by art dealer Edward Fox White, while Jocelyn Palser, art dealer, was occupying no. 9. Palser may have been the owner of the space, as he was identified at this address in an ad for an articled pupil for an architect in the Times on 10 July 1872.

The business moved to 27 King-street in 1913, taking over the galleries previously held by the Shepherd Brothers. A notice in the Times commented on the transition: “Shepherd’s Galleries. – The well-known picture galleries of Messrs. Shepherd Brothers, at 27, King-street, St. James’s-square, opposite Messrs. Christie’s, which for more than a generation have been a pleasant hunting-ground for collectors of early English pictures, has been taken by the old-established firm of Messrs. J. Palser and Sons, of King-street, Covent Garden. Messrs. Shepherd Brothers retired from business a few months ago, and we understand that their stock will be sold at Messrs. Christie’s in due course. The house of Palser was established a century or more ago on the Surrey side of the river, chiefly dealing in and publishing engravings. Of recent years, Messrs. Palser have dealt largely in water-colour and other drawings by English artists, and their new and more central premises will enable them to branch out into other departments of the trade in pictures.” (2 December 1913, 13) The Palser firm continued to do business at this address until at least 1940 (Times, 3 May 1940, 1).

Address: 27 King-street

Start Date: 1913

End Date: at least 1940

Other Locations:
9 King-street (by 1901 - 1913) [by 1881]*

Dealer:  Jocelyn Palser

Selected exhibitions

Pictures and Water-Colour Drawings of the Early English School (1897) [Times, 19 July 1897, 1]

Water colour drawings of the early English school (1914) [NAL]

Winter exhibition of early English water colour drawings of the 19th and 19th centuries (January 1934) [NAL]

Water colours and oil paintings by Peter de Wint and P. Wilson Steer (January 1937) [NAL]

Annual exhibition of early English water colours (Summer 1938) [NAL]

Exhibition catalogues: National Art Library, London (1914, 1934-1940)

*The dates that appear in the heading are those identified as securely documented “start” and “end” dates when the map animation was created. Additional research has extended the time span that the gallery can be documented at this address.