Back in 2008, when I wrote about the famous Warner’s Safe Nervine Tiger poster,  I suggested that this poster was appearing rather frequently for sale on eBay and other sites and I felt like many of the posters were, in fact, reproductions, rather than originals. I still believe this to be the case and have seen at least a half dozen of these come up for auction in 2009 alone. There is simply no way that so many originals have survived to be offered for sale.

In a recent auction, the seller did an excellent job photographing the poster he was offering. I have attached above two of those photographs. Looking at the first photograph, you could easily believe that you were looking at an original. One of the great difficulties with buying antique paper over the internet is that you cannot actually examine the piece being offered. In this case, the second photograph is key. You will note that it says the piece was copyrighted by “Portal Publications, Sausalito, Calif. 94965″. This tells you that you are looking at a reproduction. While Portal was not the only publisher to reproduce this vintage poster, it was undoubtedly one of the most prolific. The other clue is the presence of the Zip Code after Sausalito. Zip Codes did not come into wide use by the U.S. Postal Service until the 1960′s. While there are no indicators of what is a genuine Nervine Tiger poster, any prospective buyer should carefully examine the item offered for markings that disclose a reproduction.

The name “Bright’s Disease” figures very prominently on the early labels of Warner’s Safe Cure. As I have mentioned on several occasions, it was this singular disease that, according to H. H. Warner, brought him to the brink of death and changed the course of his life from being a wealthy and successful fireproof safe salesman to an incredibly wealthy patent medicine proprietor. His story is recounted in detail in the early Safe Cure almanacs:

That being said, what exactly is Bright’s Disease? Do people still contract it or has it faded into history as a medical anacronysm. At its most basic level, it was an inflammation of the kidneys. Dorland’s Medical Dictionary defines it as ” a broad descriptive term once used for kidney disease with proteinuria, usually glomerulonephritis; named for Richard Bright,  an English physician who published a description of diseases in 1827.” In short, excess protein in the urine.

The 1879-1880 Almanac offered Warner’s Safe Cure as “The Original Dr. Craig’s Kidney Cure – An Absolute Specific for Bright’s Disease.”  To drive the sale home, Warner recounted his own near-death experience for Bright’s Disease:

The remedy was suggested to the mind of Dr. Chas. Craig, when lying at the point of death from Bright’s Disease, not as a probably cure for this presumably fatal terror, but as a possible relief from some of the intense pain he was suffering, and a help to his rebellious stomach. To his surprise, as soon as  he had taken the first dose of this first weak vegetable decoctin, he felt better, and, continuing to take it, he was soon on his feet again, a well and strong man. After his recovery, he administered it to his neighbors similarly afflicted, and they also got well. By degrees, as the result of experience and professional consultation, other vegetable ingredients were added to quicken and increase its efficiency, and with the compound thus prepared, thousands of cases have been cured, and many of them to the astonishment of the patients and their acquaintences. Therefore, the sick-bed suggestion which came to the mind of Dr. Craig, has seemed to him and to others almost like a revelation.

As Dorland’s suggests, the term Bright’s Disease is no longer used in medical parlance. It may be no exaggeration to suggest that but for a severe case of it that afflicted H. H. Warner, his influence on American business may have been limited to fireproof safes.

If you are a Warner’s Safe Cure collector, you owe it to yourself to visit the center of the Warner universe, Rochester,  New York.  I did so in 2001 and have written about it before in this blog.  During my visit, Jack Stecher and I were able to go into the building, but found that much of the space was carved up into commercial uses and undoubtedly bore little resemblence to the hustle and bustle of the patent medicine business that flourished there in the late-19th Century. Nevertheless, the fact that this wonderful piece of Victorian architecture was still standing for us to admire was no small thing. Rochester has lost more than its fair share of wonderful buildings to the wrecking ball, including other structures associated with H. H. Warner, such as his mansion and the Warner Observatory.

I was delighed recently to find that the Warner’s Safe Remedies Building has found yet another adaptive reuse in the form of the  H. H. Warner Lofts. Although I had not been back to the building to tour these new residential spaces, they appear to make wonderful use of  unique architecture of this building and will hopefully ensure that it lasts for many more years.

Best of all, the developers of this project have been mindful of the significance of the building’s history and its progenitor and have included photos of Warner’s Safe almanacs and trade cards on their website. I say “Bravo” to the H. H. Warner Lofts. If I lived in Rochester,  I might be considering a new address.

If you spend any time on Facebook you know that there is a group for about every interest you can name and probably a few you can’t. At any rate, I figured it was worth giving Warner’s Safe Cure collectors a place to hang their hats on Facebook.  If you’re a fan of Warner’s and Facebook, please take a few minutes to visit the Warner’s Safe Cure fan page and pass it along to others. I hope this will be another way to stoke interest in the wonderful area of antique bottle collecting.

The link for the new Warner’s Safe Cure group on Facebook is http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/group.php?gid=344914038104. Come sign up and spread the word.

Almost invariably, if you see a picture of H. H. Warner, it is a copy of an engraving that depicts him with an elder statesman visage. It is the engraving that I use on this blog showing Warner slightly graying, perhaps in his fifties. It looks like this

When Warner was elected as the President of the Chamber of Commerce in 1887, an engraving of him and other officers of the Chamber were included in the book, The Industries of the City of Rochester along with the text of Warner’s inaugeral address. That engraving is the first one in this post. Clearly, it is an earlier engraving showing a more youthful Warner. Absent are the touches of gray in his hair. The chapter about the Chamber includes a brief bio of Warner:

Both of these engravings can be compared with the elderly Warner, whose care -worn photo appeared on the cover of his catalog for Warner’s Renowned Remedies, his unsuccessful effort to resurrect his patent medicine empire in the 1920′s.

Other engravings or photographs of Warner likely exist given his great success and public image. It provides us with yet another image of a man that shaped the patent medicine industry of the late 19th Century.

A couple years ago, I attempted to put together a list of Warner’s Safe Cures that are the most difficult varieties to get.  I called it the “A” Lists. I did this with the help of other knowledgeable Warner’s collectors. I had originally set out to do a “Top 10 List,” but I found that it was difficult to arrange the rarest Warner’s in any meaningful order and that it necessarily meant comparing apples to oranges. Instead, I settled for a list of rare Warner’s in no particular order. Since the A-List was published, I have heard from numerous collectors with suggested additions to the list as well as other improvements.

This time around, I am going to group the rare Warner’s by office and I will include a picture, either from my collection or another. This will include reference to Ed Ojea’s Warner’s Reference Guide site. As is appropriate, I will start where it all started in Rochester. Although Rochester is the  source of the most ubiquitous Warner bottle, the Kidney & Liver Cure, it also produced a few rarer examples. The rarity of a Warner bottle may be as much about color as it is about type. A perfect example is the Kidney & Liver Cure. The standard K&L Cure will fetch anywhere from $18-25 depending on condition. However, if you come  up with an example that is a very pale amber or has shades of green, the rarity and value is enhanced dramatically.

Turning to the Rochester variants, the best place to start is with the early Warner’s Cures packaged in bottles produced at the Chambers Works in Pittsburgh. These bottles are characterized by the “gravestone” shaped slug plate that traces the edge of the entire face of the bottle and by the acronym “A&DHC” embossed on the base of the bottle for Alexander and David H. Chambers. The K&L Cure from Chambers Works catapults to the $100-125 range. Other Warner’s bottles produced by the Chambers Works include the NERVINE,  DIABETES CURE,  BITTERS (Pint and Half Pint),  TONIC (Pint & Half Pint) and TONIC BITTERS (Pint and Half Pint).

I have pictured several examples above (courtesy of Ed Ojea), which illustrate the typical Chambers Works bottle. Note that the pints are topped with the double collar lip, while the half pints typically have the medicine lip. Although “A&HDC” usually appears on the base, that is not true on every bottle. Of the Chambers Works Warner’s, the hardest to get are the DIABETES CURE, the NERVINE (half pint), the TONIC BITTERS (both sizes) and the BITTERS (half pint).

In the next part, I will take on some of the other Warner rarities from Rochester.

When you’re talking uniqueness of shape in the realm of antique bottle collecting, it is hard to imagine that the discussion would not turn to figural bitters. Now, before everyone who doesn’t collect figural bitters jumps on me for my gross overgeneralization, I’m not saying that figural bitters are best bottles or the most valuable, although some examples can lay claim to those titles. What I am saying is that figural bitters represent some of the most unique shapes among bottles. A quick stroll through any major show will reveal indian queens, ears of corn, log cabins, pineapples, and the list goes on. Among proprietors of bitters in the 19th Century, shape was seemingly as important as name to consumers.  And a good thing too, because it has given bottle collectors an amazing array of shape to collect.

Although H. H. Warner was, perhaps, one of the top marketers of patent medicines, including bitters. He staked his brand to the image of the safe and reinforced that claim through constant advertising and promotions bearing that trademark.  Within the Warner empire, there were several notable exceptions to this branding. Among them were his Tippecanoe and the Log Cabin Remedies line. Putting aside Log Cabin Remedies, his Tippecanoe bitters replaced his Warner’s Safe Bitter, Tonic and Tonic Bitters. He clearly wanted to make a clean break and decided to use unique packaging. So unique, in fact, that he registered it with the U.S. Patent Office.

Fortunately, we are the beneficiaries of his efforts.  While his Tippecanoe bottles are not considered rare among collectors (unless they have full labels or an olive color),  they are an excellent addition to a figural bitters collection. Warner was out of business by 1893, although the company continued to exist and the Tippecanoe remained part of the inventory of products until 1895 or so. It is unclear why it was retired, but retired it was and Warner’s experiment in figural bitters faded into history.

Special thanks to Glass Works Auctions for the photograph of the labelled Tippecanoe.

I am always on the lookout for advertising from Warner Safe Remedies offices outside the United States. While print advertising inside the US was prolific, the same does not seem to be the case with the foreign offices. Below is a print ad from The Morning Telegram of November 11, 1903, which at first glance appears to be from the London Office. However, when you take a closer look at the text toward the end of the ad, it directs the buyer to the Toronto Office at 44 Lombard Street.

My favorite part of this ad is that it claims to cure “Weak Women” from “a life of suffering and an untimely end.” Wow, what more can you ask?

This very definitve statement was made to me some years ago and, at the time, I would have believed it given the evidence of my own eyes. Indeed, most, if not all of the so-called “green Tippecanoes” that I had seen were, in fact, amber with tinges of green if you held them up to the light at just the right angle.  Well, as they say on Myth Busters – “BUSTED”.  In recent years, I have seen a couple examples of what I would consider legitimate green Tippecanoes. Witness the following. First, the more common amber Tippecanoe:

Now, compare that to the following example, which is indisputably green:

Green Tippecanoe

To the extent that there was any doubt concerning the existence of the green Tippecanoe, I think this puts it to rest.  I still believe that the bottle manufacturer probably did not intend for the bottle to be green, but that either as a result of ultraviolet radiation or simply an error in the manufacturing process, we end up with a green Tippecanoe.  Given their rarity, you should expect to pay handsomely for one of these babies, IF you can find one. Now that the green Tippecanoe myth is busted, will someone please show me an Animal Cure from Melbourne?! Yeah, right.

Postscript:  I had forgotten that American Glass Gallery offered a beautiful example of the green Tippecanoe for auction this past summer in their Auction No. 6. The green Tippe fetched a cool $8500. For a peak, take a look at Lot 177 on page 37 of their auction catalog. A very nice example.

The Warner Observatory in 1883

The Warner Observatory may, perhaps, be the best graphic representation of the rise and fall of the Warner’s Safe empire. I wrote about it in two parts back in May and June, 2008. It was both a symbol of Warner’s success and, ultimately, of his downfall and destruction, although the Observatory lasted far longer than Mr. Warner.

Recently, with the help of Jack Stecher, I was able to find some old photographs of the Observatory housed in the Monroe County Library. The photographs are part of the Albert A. Stone Collection of vintage Rochester images. Although I had seem some of the images before, including the one above from 1883, when the Observatory first opened, there were several others that I had not seen.

The Warner Observatory in 1910

The Observatory was opened in 1883 and the photograph from that year shows a gleaming new facility with a manicured landscape. A decade later, Warner filed bankruptcy and lost control of his medicine empire. By 1910, the Observatory was beginning to show its age and signs of neglect. It had ceased to a functioning facility and vines had begun to appear on its outer walls. 

The Warner Observatory in 1926

By 1926, the Observatory is essentially abandoned. Its windows are boarded up and it appears to exist as but a shell of its glory days. By that time, both Warner and its former resident astronomer, Lewis Swift, were dead. It seems as though the observatory itself was waiting to be dispatched and in 1939 that is exactly what happened. The last photograph shows the demolition of the structure with workers stacking the stone and lumber is it is removed from the building. The life cycle of the Warner Observatory was complete. Although it outlasted the Safe Cure business and both Warner and Swift, it ultimately met the same fate. Special thanks to the Monroe County Library for the use of these images.

The Demolition of the Warner Observatory in 1939

Construction of the Warner’s Safe Remedies Building began 130 years ago in 1883 and was completed in time for H. H. Warner’s 42nd birthday. Not many people get a building for their birthday, but Warner was not most people. His medicine empire was taking off by that time and the money was rolling in. The Safe Remedies Building became a symbol of his success and, unlike the Observatory and his Mansion, it survives to this day.

Engraving of Warner’s Safe Remedies Building

 Through the years, the Safe Remedies Building has been captured on film, which makes for an interesting retrospective.

Warner’s Safe Remedies Building in 1884

View of Warner’s Safe Remedies Building from Intersection of St. Pauls and Mortimer Streets in 1899

Warner’s Safe Remedies Building in 1924

View of Warner’s Safe Remedies Building from the Intersection of St. Pauls and Andrews Streets in 1949

Warner’s Safe Remedies Building in 2009

Advertisement for Warner Lofts

By 2009, the Safe Remedies Building was looking pretty shabby. All of the buildings that had been constructed around it had been demolished.  One had to wonder if a similar fate awaited the Safe Remedies Building. Fortunately, the building has since been renovated into residential housing known as the Warner Lofts. Here’s hoping that this landmark and one of the last standing monuments to H. H. Warner endures for many years to come.

Recently, I posted some advertising for a product endorsed by H. H. Warner called “Adamant Plaster,” which was apparently used in Warner’s Cottage on the St. Lawrence River. The advertisements were sent to me by Kevin Taft along with some other interesting material, including some stereoscopic slides that purport to show the Warner Cottage as it existed in the 1880′s. I believe that Jack Stecher also chanced upon these views and actually visited Warner Island back in the 1990′s. It seems that Warner Island was originally called ”Surveyor’s Island” in recognition that it served as a base for the American Commission overseeing boundary mapping vis a vis Canada. Warner renamed the island and erected his cottage there. The island was later referred to as Jewell Island and currently as Stoney Crest. It seems that a good many of the thousand islands were destroyed courtesy of the St. Lawrence Seaway Project in the 1950′s that also claimed Warner’s cottage.

These views show Warner Island and life on the Thousand Island River as it existed when Warner used it as his playground. Indeed the photograph of the cottage bears a striking resemblence to the image on the sheet music “Thousand Island River.” The cards are titled “Scenery among the Thousand Islands on the River St. Lawrence” from Crossmon House Photographic Studio, Alexandria Bay, Jefferson County, N.Y., A.C. McIntyre & Co., Artists. On the line marked “View” is written “Warner Island.”

The description of the scene on the back of the card reads as follows:

“‘The Thousand Islands’ of the St. Lawrence have long been regarded one of the most delightful resorts for rest, healthful recreation, and recupration anywhere to be found in the counrty. The river in the neighborhood of the Bay is in places fairly crammed with beautiful islands, nearly all of them covered with trees and shrubs, the pure water from the Great Lakes running between and around in channels large or small, swift or slow, and frequently into the bays or coves where fishing parties love to linger. Some of the shores are rocky and precipitous, and others slope gently to the water’s edge.  There are at least a dozen different kinds of trees on these islands, and the deciduous and evergreen are pleasantly intermixed. The spacious and elegant hotels erected at Alexandria Bay two years since, together with the increased faciities of reaching the locality, have attracted thither many thousands of visitors from every section of the country. The Crossmon House, in all its appointments, takes rank among the first hotels in the State. Excursion tickets are issued via Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh R. R. to Alexandria Bay and retun. This Company offers to pleasure travel, via the St. Lawrence River, advantages and comforts superior to any other route, and by which the Pleasure Seeker can have a view of the Thousand Islands and rapids by daylight, and enjoy a delightful sail of 30 miles on steamer Faxton from Cape Vincent to Alexandia Bay. The Utica & Black River Railroad connects at Utica with the N. Y. Central for Morristown and Clayton, and at latter place with Steamers for Alexandria Bay.”

Although H. H. Warner lost control of his Safe Cure empire in 1893 as the result of a history of bad investments, against which he leveraged the business that had made him a household name, his brand name endured for decades. Now that’s brand identification. The Warner Remedies brand survived into the 1930’s and 1940’s without its namesake.

While it never again reached the heights of popularity it experienced in the mid-1880’s, the Warner name became synonymous with medicines the average American could appreciate. Over the 60-odd years of its existence, Warner’s Remedies offered a consistent message: “bad health begins with the kidneys”. Now, whether you agree with that or not, it apparently struck a chord with the average consumer. Going back to the earliest Safe Cure almanacs, Warner attributed a host of maladies to poor kidney function. Indeed, his supposed brush with death as a result of Bright’s Disease was the result of improper kidney function.  In an age where most Americans did not have access to regular medical care, the explanation seemed a plausible one. Warner capitalized on the notion that Americans could be empowered to heal themselves and he was more than happy to provide a means to that end.

Indeed, the word “SAFE” in Safe Cure was both an homage to Warner’s early business success in the fireproof safe business and an assurance that his “medicines” were not harmful to the consumer. While the truth of that remains unknown, it is more likely that they were not helpful either. Gradually, Warner and “Safe Cure” or “Safe Remedy” became synonymous and the products flourished. Even so, the company never strayed far from the notion that all disease, whatever its manifestation, could be traced to malfunctioning kidneys. And, even after the “Safe” was long dropped from the name and the bottles went from embossed to screw top (pictured above), the importance of renal health remained the predominant theme. It simply resonated with the American public. Never mind that it was complete and utter nonsense. While malfunctioning kidneys can cause problems in the human body, they are most certainly not the source of all disease. If it were only that simple. Well, as Mr. Warner knew, a simple and consistent message is powerful marketing.

Photograph used by permission. Copyright (©2014wermuthgrafik.ch)

Photograph used by permission. Copyright (©2014wermuthgrafik.ch)

While we are all familiar with the so-called “3-Cities” (Toronto) and “4-Cities” (Dundein, New Zealand) Safe Cures, no one had ever showed me an example with no city on the base. Not, at least, until recently, when one appeared on eBay. The bottle was auctioned by a seller in Switzerland and fetched just under $1000 by auction’s end.  My first reaction to the bottle was one of skepticism. How could a completely unheard of Warner variant appear for the first time after all these years? And, why would Warner package a product that omitted it’s point of origin? If nothing else, Warner seemed to take great pride in his foreign offices, which he bragged “Belted the Globe” with his Safe Cure. This bottle is truly a mystery. 

Warner’s Safe Cure Almanac for 1891

My other instinct was that perhaps it was an example of a bottle with extremely light embossing or perhaps the embossing had worn down to the point it was unreadable. For example, many of the Pressburg Safe Cures I have seen over the years are poorly embossed. Even so, I had never seen one where the embossing was undetectable. Although I did not have the opportunity to see the bottle first hand, the pictures posted by the seller and reproduced above seem to show no city embossed. At least, none that I can detect. In all other regards, the bottle looks very similar to ones issued by the Warner Office in Frankfurt, Germany. 

After the auction, I contacted the seller, who kindly allowed me to use his images of the bottle. He was unable to provide much history on the bottle, except that it came from a store near Zurich. Although Warner clearly issued bottles from his foreign offices in Europe, including London, Frankfurt and Pressburg, he also claimed to have a presence in Switzerland. The 1891 Safe Cure Almanac is one of my favorites, because its cover highlights the international reach of Warner. If you look closely at the hands reaching out toward the Safe Cure box, each of the sleeves is marked with a foreign office. The third sleeve down on the right clearly says “Dundein, New Zealand”. You also cannot help but notice that the sleeve directly opposite it is marked “Rangoon, Burma”.  Burma, really? Guess that sounds exotic.

I have previously posted about foreign offices claimed by Warner, but, for which we have little or no evidence in the form of a bottle. One example was the Paris Office.  Over the years, I have seen examples of Warner advertising claiming a Paris Office, but never any bottle embossed “Paris” at the base. The closest thing I have ever seen in that regard is a London Safe Cure with a French label. Without the label, it would simply be another London Safe Cure. 

   Warner’s Safe Cure London with French Label

Perhaps there were Safe Cures sold in Switzerland or Belgium or even Burma with labels targeted for those populations, but without embossing attributing them to those locations.  At this point, one can only speculate. Which brings us back to what I have called the “No City” Safe Cure.  I believe its point of origin will remain a mystery until another example surfaces.  For now, it remains a unique example of Warner’s Safe Cure.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Other than the classic Safe Cure bottle, H. H. Warner’s other significant contribution to collectors was in the form of his figural bitters -Tippecanoe. Tippecanoe replaced Warner’s early bitters line, which included Safe Bitters, Safe Tonic and Safe Tonic Bitters. It was also highlighted by the unique log-shaped bottle. Over the years, I have seen many examples of the Tippecanoe bottle, including those in shades of green, those with misspellings of the word “Rochester” on the base and those will full or nearly full labels.  More often than not, the labelled Tippecanoes boast labels that are brown or very nearly so, often with content staining or other damage. Recently, however, an nicer example showed up on eBay.

Although this example is missing some portions of the label, it has retained some of the original color that is often missing from Tippecanoe labels. This is especially true of the light blue-green background coloring. This is also an example of the rarer of the two labels – “XXX Bitters”.  The other variant – “The Best” is seen more frequently, although labelled Tippecanoes are scarce commodities nonetheless.

Filed under: H. H. Warner, Safe Bitters, Safe Cure, Safe Tonic, Safe Tonic Bitters, Tippecanoe Tagged: H. H. Warner, Tippecanoe Bitters, Tippecanoe XXX Bitters, Warner's Safe Bitters, Warner's Safe Tonic, Warner's Safe Tonic Bitters

It was barely a week after “Black Tuesday” and the initial crash of the Stock Market that signaled America’s descent into the Great Depression. The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle published a full page spread entitled “Odd Business Adventurer Recalled” by John P. Guttenberg. The article was a retrospective of the success and downfall of one of Rochester’s most prominent business figures – Hulbert Harrington Warner.

Although Warner had died in relative obscurity six years earlier in Minneapolis, the article recalled the life of a man, who, only forty years earlier, had commanded tremendous public adulation and whose products had belted the Globe, spanning three continents. Over the past six years, I have attempted to capture the essence of H. H. Warner, to the extent that is possible. Guttenberg’s article does a nice job in a much shorter format. A scan of the entire article is attached.

With the onset of the Great Depression, it is hard to imagine that the article got more than a passing notice by most Rochesterians. Although Warner’s Safe Remedies still likely graced the shelves of local drug stores, the man who had created a global marketing phenomenon had been divorced from the business for over a generation and had faded into obscurity.

Warner’s influence on the landscape of Rochester was also in decline. His sumptuous East Avenue mansion succumbed to the wrecking ball in 1929 and his Observatory a decade later. Only the Warner’s Safe Remedies Building survived and remains to this day.

A special but belated word of thanks to Kevin Taft. Kevin has been kind enough over the years to provide me with some great Warner research and I am most grateful for his contributions.

Odd Business Adventurer Recalled – Democrat Chronicle – 3 Nov 1929

I’ve been doing this blog now for over 10 years and sometimes I struggle with trying to find new material that hasn’t been covered in one way or another. That accounts for my somewhat infrequent and spotty posting. Fortunately, there are other Warner’s Safe Cure collectors out there, who rescue me and help me find new material or even correct some of my misconceptions or erroneous conclusions. Enter Trevor Gatfield.

A couple of weeks ago, I got an email from Trevor challenging a notion that I had posted back on  June 11, 2008. Namely, that, even though Warner claimed to have a Dunedin (I used to misspell it Dundein – sorry to my Kiwi friends) Office, it may not have actually existed. https://warnerssafeblog.wordpress.com/2008/06/11/warners-foreign-offices-melbourne-1887-1915-and-dundein-1891-1900. 

This conclusion was based upon the fact that I had never seen any evidence of a physical location in Dunedin. This can be compared with the offices in Rochester, London and Melbourne, among others, that had documented offices with published addresses in the contemporary literature.  While Trevor did not have evidence of a building in Dunedin with a Warner’s Safe Remedies sign on it, he postulated that the Dunedin Office was, in fact, the office of Kempthorne,  Prosser & Co.,  The New Zealand Drug Co., Ltd., who according to a December 22, 1900 article in the New Zealand Times were SOLE AGENTS for Warner’s Safe Cure. They were headquartered at 31 Stafford Street in Dunedin with other offices in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. 

Kempthorne, Prosser preexisted the Warner’s Safe Remedies Co. having started in business in 1869 and lasted well after the remnants of Warner’s were long gone, closing its doors in 1978. 

Trevor was kind enough to  discover a couple photos of their offices;  however, as of this date we do not have permission to use those photographs. We hope to link to them later with permission. In the interim, I found a picture of the Wellington Office as well as a advertising card from 1901.

While I don’t want to read too much into the apparent use of a Sole Agency as giving Warner’s Safe Remedies a physical presence in a foreign city, such as Dunedin, it might shed light on how Warner could claim a presence in other cities like Paris, Brussels, Belgium, Rangoon, Burma or Kreuzlingen, Switzerland.  The proof of such a hypothesis would require us to determine, which company, if any, held the sole agency for Warner’s Safe Remedies in those cities. Unlike Dunedin, which boasts the 4-Cities bottles,  there are no bottles with embossing for Paris, Brussels, Rangoon or Kruezlingen. There is one French label Safe Cure and, of course, the mysterious “No City” Safe Cure that first appeared several years ago.

Thanks to Trevor for stirring this pot. Sometimes you need to take a second look at what seems to be established fact. Of course, we cannot know what H. H. Warner intended, but it’s fun to make some educated guesses. If you have any more information on Kempthorne, Prosser & Co. or its connection to the Warner’s Safe Remedies Co. as sole agent in New Zealand, please let me know.

The photograph below of The Warner Observatory from the Albert R. Stone Negative Collection of the Rochester Museum & Science Center shows the observatory sometime after its construction in 1883. This is, perhaps, one of the best quality

photographs of the structure, which survived until it was razed in 1931. In my research, I recently stumbled upon a nice blog  entitled “Retrofitting Rochester,” which included a history of The Warner Observatory by Taylor Daughton along with a reading of a contemporary description of the observatory and its constuction by a local historian:

http://media.democratandchronicle.com/retrofitting-rochester/warner-observatory

It is unfortunate that this piece of Rochester history was lost to the wrecking ball. However, it is also true that, during its heyday, The Warner Observatory and its director,  Lewis Swift, actually contributed to the knowledge of astronomy at the time. Indeed, that knowledge might well be considered the true scientific legacy of H. H. Warner.