Colnaghi

P & D Colnaghi & Co is an art dealership in St James's, central London, England, which is the oldest commercial art gallery in the world, having been established in 1760.

The business that became the Colnaghi gallery was established by Italian firework manufacturer, Giovanni Battista Torre, in Paris, France, in 1760. Torre opened a shop with the name "Cabinet de Physique Expérimentale", where he sold scientific instruments, books and prints.

In 1767, Torre's son Anthony Torre moved to London where he opened a sister shop, specialising in prints, in partnership with another Italian immigrant, Anthony Molteno. Giovanni Torre died in 1780, and in 1784 Anthony Torre hired Paul Colnaghi—newly arrived in Paris from Milan—to manage a new shop in Paris. Colnaghi left Paris for London in May 1785, to join Torre and Molteno, who had become successful selling prints by leading engravers such as William Wynne Ryland and Valentine Green. The London business moved to Pall Mall in 1786 and Colnaghi married Anthony Torre's sister-in-law Elizabeth Baker.

Anthony Torre retired to Italy in 1788, and Molteno took over as senior partner. The firm operated as Molteno, Colnaghi & Co. for a time, with a new business connection to Italian partners in Paris, before Molteno left to found a separate company in 1793. Colnaghi now ran the original firm with a succession of partners, concentrating on selling new prints and engravings of Old Master paintings.

Colnaghi published a very popular series of engravings, the Cries of London, from 1792 to 1797. He moved premises to Cockspur Street in 1799, and survived the disruption to his trade caused by the Napoleonic Wars. His elder son Dominic became a partner in around 1810, and later his younger son Martin also became a partner. The firm held monthly levées at its premises for its customers, many from the British aristocracy. Colnaghi became the official print-seller to the Prince Regent, and he was asked to organise the Royal Collection, receiving a Royal Warrant when the Prince Regent became George IV. Colnaghi was also print-seller to George's sister, Charlotte, Princess Royal, later Queen of Württemberg. His daughter Caroline had married John Scott in 1807. Scott was founder of the resurrected London Magazine, in 1820, but was killed in a duel the following year.

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