In 1891, this firm was listed as a pen and pocket knife manufacturer at Continental Works, Westfield Terrace.  It was the Sheffield office of a Birmingham firm (of the same name).  In Birmingham, Collings & Wallis was variously listed as a hardware merchant, factor, or trader in ‘Birmingham goods’ at King Edward’s Road. 

The firm had been founded by the 1860s by two ironmongers, Jesse Collings (1831-1920) and Charles Wallis (1831-1905). Collings withdrew in 1879 and became prominent as a Mayor of Birmingham and Liberal MP. Wallis prospered too and when he retired in 1903 he held several directorships in railway carriage and wagon companies.

Collings & Wallis continued to be listed in Sheffield directories: in the 1920s it was at Ark Works, Trafalgar Street, and then at Cambridge Street.   The office and its relationship with the original Birmingham firm are unknown. Collings & Wallis ceased trading in Sheffield in 1931, when it was at Eyre Street.