Thank you once again, David. I have other CEW fire grate ads but not this one. I'm now feeling a very ineffectual searcher. I can only plead that when I had my week's blitz on the SCMP I used a very wide date span of 1900-1941 for my search. Many of the ads were repeats and those seemed to be the ones that most presented themselves. You are finding the elusive one-offs!
I am looking for something else and then once in awhile I see them! But I just noticed there seems to be a whole spate of different ads in 1921. Must be a special year for the company? Did they diversify?
David, your remark about the "spate of different ads in 1921" sent me to the unpublished typescript of our family history by Evelyn Warren's son, Brian Lewis, as he has some remarks about the 1921 ads, but was limited to those that appeared in the SCMP (on microfiche at the British Library). There was no internet when he was doing his research. I quote: "SCMP January 5 1921. The Warren advertisement suddenly became remarkably dull with a picture of a fireplace, C.E. Warren, but no Ltd and no address. " Obviously not the same as the one you've uploaded above. "SCMP March 12 1921. A new and slightly improved advertisement refers again to C E Warren & Co. Ltd." "SCMP March 23 1921. Gives the address as 30 Des Voeux Road (not 32) and for an unknown reason says company founded in 1890 (...) Various adverts around May say established 1920 and 1900 as well as 1890. I do not know why but it just suggests a lack of advertising control which may reflect the unease in the company ...." "However SCMP July 11 gave some good press for Warren. 'Local and General. We congratulate Messrs C E Warren and Company on having succeeded in polishing Hong Kong granite. Hitherto the granite obtained from local quarries has always been considered too brittle to serve the purposes of a decorative pedestal but a monument with the panels brought to a high state of glossiness and lettering likewise brought out in relief at its base is on display at the shoip of the company at Des Voeux Road Central. By the process of special machinery the surface of the granite which is of rough grain has been toned down to a uniform level and resembles glass in its smoothness." According to Lewis, there were no Warren advertisements from June to 21 December 1921, in the SCMP at any rate.
This should all be seen in the context of the break-up of the company partnership - that is between Charles Warren and his young brother-in-law, John Olson since the death of John Olson snr in 1918, who, it turned out, had left nothing to his eldest child by his first wife, Hannah (Charles Warren's wife). In order to pay off John Olson, Warren sold the Des Voeux Road offices on 2 July 1921. He also sold some land in the New Territories to John Olson for only $1000 - (subsequently bequeathed after Annie Olson's death to become the site of the St Christopher's Home.) He sold three of his racing ponies for a mere $25 each, including his previous winner Pantile, and completely withdrew from the February 1921-February 1922 racing season. The settlement between the two partners took place on 20 July 1921. John and Annie Olson left Hong Kong in November, accompanied on that occasion by John's younger brother, Charles, who would return with his new wife.
So 1921 was a year of stress in which Warren knew that in buying out John Olson he would be facing an enormous debt that there was little prospect of repaying, but he was determined to keep the company going that he had started and that bore his name, whatever the cost.
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CEW Fire grate advertisement
Thank you once again, David. I have other CEW fire grate ads but not this one. I'm now feeling a very ineffectual searcher. I can only plead that when I had my week's blitz on the SCMP I used a very wide date span of 1900-1941 for my search. Many of the ads were repeats and those seemed to be the ones that most presented themselves. You are finding the elusive one-offs!
I am looking for something…
I am looking for something else and then once in awhile I see them! But I just noticed there seems to be a whole spate of different ads in 1921. Must be a special year for the company? Did they diversify?
1921 a year of crisis for C E Warren & Co
David, your remark about the "spate of different ads in 1921" sent me to the unpublished typescript of our family history by Evelyn Warren's son, Brian Lewis, as he has some remarks about the 1921 ads, but was limited to those that appeared in the SCMP (on microfiche at the British Library). There was no internet when he was doing his research. I quote: "SCMP January 5 1921. The Warren advertisement suddenly became remarkably dull with a picture of a fireplace, C.E. Warren, but no Ltd and no address. " Obviously not the same as the one you've uploaded above. "SCMP March 12 1921. A new and slightly improved advertisement refers again to C E Warren & Co. Ltd." "SCMP March 23 1921. Gives the address as 30 Des Voeux Road (not 32) and for an unknown reason says company founded in 1890 (...) Various adverts around May say established 1920 and 1900 as well as 1890. I do not know why but it just suggests a lack of advertising control which may reflect the unease in the company ...." "However SCMP July 11 gave some good press for Warren. 'Local and General. We congratulate Messrs C E Warren and Company on having succeeded in polishing Hong Kong granite. Hitherto the granite obtained from local quarries has always been considered too brittle to serve the purposes of a decorative pedestal but a monument with the panels brought to a high state of glossiness and lettering likewise brought out in relief at its base is on display at the shoip of the company at Des Voeux Road Central. By the process of special machinery the surface of the granite which is of rough grain has been toned down to a uniform level and resembles glass in its smoothness." According to Lewis, there were no Warren advertisements from June to 21 December 1921, in the SCMP at any rate.
This should all be seen in the context of the break-up of the company partnership - that is between Charles Warren and his young brother-in-law, John Olson since the death of John Olson snr in 1918, who, it turned out, had left nothing to his eldest child by his first wife, Hannah (Charles Warren's wife). In order to pay off John Olson, Warren sold the Des Voeux Road offices on 2 July 1921. He also sold some land in the New Territories to John Olson for only $1000 - (subsequently bequeathed after Annie Olson's death to become the site of the St Christopher's Home.) He sold three of his racing ponies for a mere $25 each, including his previous winner Pantile, and completely withdrew from the February 1921-February 1922 racing season. The settlement between the two partners took place on 20 July 1921. John and Annie Olson left Hong Kong in November, accompanied on that occasion by John's younger brother, Charles, who would return with his new wife.
So 1921 was a year of stress in which Warren knew that in buying out John Olson he would be facing an enormous debt that there was little prospect of repaying, but he was determined to keep the company going that he had started and that bore his name, whatever the cost.