The working life of Museum of London

As we have seen, by 1898 William Warner had well and truly installed himself as “Cheiro, the Palmist” in New Bond Street in London. He read, or so he later recounted, the palms of many celebrities, politicians and even royalty, including King Edward VII, Lord Kitchener, Lillie Langtry, Mark Twain and Oscar Wilde. But palm reading was not enough for our William and soon he began to engage in a whole host of other potentially money-making activities.

Sadly, I do not have the time to properly disentangle all the different bits of information that I have gathered. I have also now heard that a book about Cheiro and his wife will be published next year, which hopefully will fill in all the gaps that I am leaving here. Last but not least, I really want to get to the Countess without much further ado, particularly now that I have seen the rest of her spectacular wardrobe. This will be explored in more detail in the weeks to come, but for now you have to make do with another pair of her small collection of Pluchino shoes.

Below is a potpourri of snippets from my ever-growing snippet mountain, presented without commentary (cop-out, I hear you muttering, well, maybe). Some of the excerpts stray into the period post-1920, the year of Cheiro’s marriage. As per usual, there will be an embarrassment of inverted commas.

The Era, 23 July 1892
SARAH BERHARDT AND PALMISTRY.
Madame Sarah Bernhardt recently had a professor of palmistry to see her. His nom de plume is “Cheiro.” He has in his possession, now, it is said, a mould of the great French actress’s right hand, which he pronounces the most extraordinary hand he ever saw. [...] Altogether, “Cheiro,” who has been reading palms for many years, and who went into business professionally on Monday at Eastbourne, claims to have a wonderful insight into the human mind through the human hand.

The New York Times, 7 January 1909
CHEIRO AS A COUNT GOT THEIR $500,000
Two New York Women Charge That Ex-Palmist in Paris Embezzled Valuable Stocks.
IS FUGITIVE FROM FRANCE
Mysterious Personage Edited Newspaper, Ran Bank and Wine Business, Dazzled Society.
PARIS, Jan. 6. – “Count” Louis Hamon, formerly known in America and Europe as “Cheiro, the Palmist,” and before that as plain John Warner, is a fugitive from France to-night, and the entire American and English colony is discussing one of the most meteoric and mysterious careers which ever dazzled Parisian society.
Hamon is charged with embezzlement and his sumptuous offices, where he edited a newspaper called The American Register and conducted a bank and other enterprises to which Americans loaned capital, are bare and empty, scores of creditors descended and seized everything. [...]
Count Hamon has been a dashing figure in Paris since his arrival here six years ago. He lived in costly apartments in the Rue du Bois de Bologne. The man’s real name is said to be L.E. Warner. Since the man arrived in Paris in 1902, when he transformed himself from “Cheiro, the Palmist” to “Count” Hamon, he has had access to society. [...]
Everybody talked of the mysterious “Count” Hamon, his dashing manner, his beautiful apartment, his horses, his vast business ventures, including a pretentious champagne enterprise near Rheims, from which he supplied many of the high-class restaurants in Paris, and of his bank and his society paper, advertised to the world in big electric letters in the gay Place de l’Opera. [...]

The New York Times, 3 August 1910
“CHEIRO” A BANKRUPT.
Palmist Who Became Broker Has Liabilities of $215,000, Assets $50.
Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES.
LONDON, Aug. 2. – A meeting of the creditors of Louis Hamon was held today under a receiving order made last June 10.
Hamon, who originally came from Chicago, has had a variegated career. Under the name of Cheiro he was for years one of the most successful palmists in London. Ten years ago he purchased The American Register, a weekly paper published first in Paris, and afterward in London, and from 1905 to 1907 he carried on a financial business under the style of Hamon & Co.
Charges were made against him by American women clients who declared that he unlawfuly [sic] retained possession of certain stock that they had given him to negotiate.
The official Receiver said that no statement of the debtor’s affairs had yet been lodged, but Hamon has estimated his unsecured liabilities at £43,000. ($215,000.) The only assets disclosed were ten shares of £1 each in a registered company.

The Times, 13 January 1911
Deficiency of Assets. In Re Hamon. (Before Mr. Registrar Hope.)
An application for an order of discharge was made by Mr. Louis Hamon, of Piccadilly-circus, W., and lately trading under the style of Hamon and Co. at 59 and 60 Gracechurch-street, E.C., who was adjusted bankrupt on August 5, 1910. The Liabilities of the bankrupt were estimated at £43,012 11s. 4d. and a sum of 4s. only had been realized in respect of his estate. [...]
Mr. Arthur Page, appearing for the bankrupt, pointed out that the bankrupt had incurred heavy losses through adverse markets in France and America in 1907, and the subsequent unsettled state of affairs in Russia.
Mr. Registrar Hope suspended the discharge for two years and six months on the ground reported by the Official Receiver. [...]

Phone Book Entries
1911-12 Mayfair 3551 / Hamon Count / Ryl Insrnce bldgs
1913 Regent 483 / Hamon Count / 72 Regent Street
1915 Regent 483 / Hamon Louis, Editor / 72 Regent Street

GB Patent 231935
Publication Date: 1925-04-09
Abstract of GB231935 231, 935. Artificial Coal Co. (Hamon Process), Ltd., and Hamon Count L. Le W. Jan. 9, 1924. [...]
We, THE ARTIFICIAL COAL COMPANY (HAMON PROCESS) LIMITED, a company incorporated under the laws of Jersey, of 6, Hill Street, Jersey, in the Channel-Islands, and the Count Louis LE WARNER HAMON, British subject, of 21 Park Square, Portland-Place, in the County of London, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows: This invention related to the manufacture of carbon from peat, ignite, sawdust or other carbonaceous material, for decolourising and deodorising and other purposes such as, for example, for decolourising sugar, oils, wax and other materials.

The Times, 26 April 1926
PALMIST AND COMPANY DIRECTOR.
“CHEIRO’S” CLAIM AGAINST IRISH FREE STATE.
(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
DUBLIN, April 25.
A case was heard by Judge Roche at Dublin Castle yesterday, in which Count Louis Le Warner Hamon claimed £12,960 for the alleged malicious burning of his peat works at Ballycumber, Kings County, in August 1922.
The applicant, it seems, is a native of Bray, Co. Wicklow, and during the course of an interesting career has been a newspaper-owner, a palmist, and a dealer in champagne. Three armed men, he said, came to his residence after his factory had been destroyed and told him that if he tried to save any of his machinery his men would be shot and his private house would be burned. They declared that they wanted to do as much damage as possible to the Free State Government, which, they said, had the British Government at its back. The claimant then sold his farm stock and left the country.
In cross-examination Hamon said that he had been baptized in the name of William John Warner, but his father discovered that he was entitled to the name of Le Warner, and traced his family back to the Hamons of Normandy. He took his present name by deed poll. The claimant admitted that he was also known as “Cheiro,” a nom de plume under which he published “Cheiro’s” memoirs in 1912. He had been a palmist, had travelled to Russia as a financier, and had been a director of several companies. [...]
The case was adjourned for a fortnight.

The London Gazette, 25 December 1928

What can I say? Next up: how the Count met his Countess.