Warner & Sons
| Private company | |
| Traded as | Warner & Sons |
| Industry | Textile manufacturing |
| Founded | London, England (1870) |
| Founder | Benjamin Warner |
| Defunct | 1990 |
| Headquarters | Braintree, England |
Warner & Sons (also Warner and Sons) was a British textile manufacturer specialising in silk for the furnishing industry. It wove the coronation robes for both Edward VII and Elizabeth II and had associations with some of the leading textile designers and artists of the 19th and 20th centuries.
The firm was established in the historic silk weaving neighbourhood of Spitalfields, London in 1870 and was known under a variety of different names – including Warner, Sillet & Ramm – during its early years. Founder Benjamin Warner, a jacquard weaver, was from a family that had been in the silk industry since at least the 17th century.
Warner wove high quality silks using traditional designs and began suppplying royalty around 1880. Some five years earlier, the company had diversified into popular fabrics such as worsted, lampas, brocade and velvet – the move into velvet production was particularly useful for building its reputation. It acquired the company of Charles Norris & Co in 1885, which meant Warner held a royal warrant as supplier of silks and velvets to the royal households; it also supplied stately homes, palaces and embassies internationally. It became known formally as Warner & Sons in 1891, when Benjamin Warner's sons Alfred and Frank joined the business.
Warner & Sons moved to Braintree, Essex in 1895, joining other well known companies located in the town such as Courtaulds, and taking over buildings already used by the silk industry.
By the start of the 20th century, Warner & Sons' reputation for silk furnishing fabric was cemented. It expanded in the early decades, moving into powerweaving in 1919 and operating an office in Paris from 1919–26, as well as taking its products into the United States. In order to meet demand for both modern and traditional designs, it acquired the textile block printing firm of Dartford Print Works in Dartford, Kent in 1926-7.
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