Charles Warren (4 June 1762 – 21 April 1823) was an English line engraver.
Warren was born in London, and of his early career the only facts recorded are that he married at the age of eighteen, and was at one time engaged in engraving on metal for calico printing. He enjoyed a great reputation as an engraver of small book-illustrations during the last 20 years of his life. His engraved plates of Robert Smirke in the English editions of the 'Arabian Nights' (1802), 'Gil Blas' (1809), and 'Don Quixote' (1818), were very successful. His 'Broken Jar' (after David Wilkie), one of the illustrations to poet Peter Coxe's 'Social Day', is a masterpiece of its kind.
Other fine publications to which he contributed were Kearsley's edition of "The Plays of William Shakespeare", Du Roveray's edition of "The Poetical works of Alexander Pope,[1] Walker's 'British Classics', Sharpe's 'Classics', Suttaby's 'Poets', and 'Physiognomical Portraits.'
Warren was an active member of the Society of Arts and also of the "Artists' Fund Society", of which he was president from 1812 to 1815. In 1823, he was awarded the large gold medal of the Society of Arts for valuable improvements which he made in the preparation of steel plates for engraving, but he did not live to receive his award, dying suddenly in Wandsworth, London on 21 April of that year. He was buried at St. Sepulchre's, Newgate Street.
There is a portrait of Warren from a sketch by William Mulready in John Pye's Patronage of British Art.[2]
Ambrose William Warren (c. 1781 –- 1856), the son of Charles Warren, and one of 8 children, was also a line-engraver of note. Examples of his work can be found in Cattermole's 'Book of the Cartoons' (Houlston and Hughes, 1840),[3] the 'Gem' (1830-1), and 'Ancient Marbles in the British Museum.' His most important single plates are 'The Beggar's Petition' (after W. F. Witherington, 1827), and 'The New Coat' (after David Wilkie, 1832). He died in 1856.