This electro-plate firm began in about 1875 as Parker & Brown at Progress Works, Garden Street. The partners were John Richard Parker and John Brown. Nine workers were employed in 1881. Parker had been born in Spalding, Lincolnshire. He died on 18 December 1892, aged 65, at Montrose Villa, Oxford Street. His burial in the General Cemetery was unconsecrated (he had worshipped at Queen Street Chapel).

John Brown, a Sheffielder, continued the business, though it was bankrupt in 1893 with £2,505 debts.  Brown immediately re-established the business under his name in Carver Street. In 1897, it became ‘& Co’ and by 1914 (when it was in Eyre Street) it became known as Electro-plate Manufacturers Ltd.  John Brown died in Sheffield on 2 November 1920, aged 78, leaving £5,545. In the 1920s, the firm was based in Sycamore Street, but ceased trading in 1932.