James Allan (c.1816-1893) was a Sheffield-born white metal smith.  According to Matheau-Raven (1997¹), he had traded in Britannia metal wares since 1849.  In the Census (1851), he was enumerated in Occupation Road, Wicker, living with his wife Elizabeth and three apprentices.  He employed 20 hands.  He was not listed in a directory until the 1860s, when he was joined by his son – James Frith Allan (1843-1894) – in Johnson Lane/Andrew Street, Wicker.  J. F. Allen apparently became manager of the firm and by 1871 his father – living at Woodland House, Brocco Bank – had retired.  However, the enterprise did not pass to J. F. Allen, because in about 1872 William M. Briggs established William Briggs & Co as Allan’s ‘successor’.  The Allan interest had ceased by the end of the 1880s and father and son died within a year.  James Allan, Cliffe Bank, Botanical Road, died on 17 January 1893, aged 77.  He left £16,363, with William M. Briggs as one of the executors.  James Frith Allan, metal smith, Monmouth Street, died on 5 November 1894, aged 51.  The Allans were buried in the General Cemetery.

^1. Matheau-Raven, E R, The Identification and Dating of Sheffield Electroplated Wares 1843-1943 (London, 1997)