METHODS OF IMITATING IVORY AND BONE
Year: 1850

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BENJAMIN
CHEVERTON, of No. 38, Camden Street, Camden Town, in the County of
Middlesex, Artist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Nineteenth day of June, in
the thirteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Benjamin Cheverton, my exors, adñiors, and
assigns, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said Benjamin Cheverton, my exors, adññiors, and assigns, and such others
as I, the said Benjamin Cheverton, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of Her said Majesty's United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion of
Wales, Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in Her said Majesty's Islands
of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also also in all Her said
Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "METHODS OF
IMITATING IVORY AND BONE;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso, and the said Letters Patent were granted upon the express condition,
that I, the said Benjamin Cheverton, should cause a particular description of
the nature of the said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to
be performed, to be inrolled in the High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent,

page_text: as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in pursuance of the said proviso, and in compliance
therewith, I, the said Benjamin Cheverton, do hereby declare that my Invention,
or my Methods of Imitating Ivory and Bone, consists in preparing or treating
alabaster, gypsum, or any other variety of native sulphate of lime of which water
is a constituent, so as to give it translucency. hardness, and color, in imitation
of ivory and bone, whether in their natural state, or dyed of various colors.
I have two methods of operating. I either shape a piece or portion of
alabaster, or other native sulphate of lime, from the block into some article
of beauty or utility; or I reduce the alabaster to the well-known state of
plaster of Paris, and taking the powder thereby produced in a dry state,
I then form or shape therefrom the article required, by pressing or driving the
powder into suitable moulds. In both cases the subsequent process is the
same.
Firstly, I place the articles, fashioned or framed as just stated, for about
forty-eight hours, in trays, in an iron oven heated gradually to a temperature of
from two hundred and fifty to three hundred and fifty degrees of Fahrenheit.
This baking evaporates for the most part the water in combination with the
alabaster, and renders it opaque and absorbent, or very susceptible of absorbing
moisture, but so brittle as to be very liable to fracture.
Secondly, I immerse the articles, after being exposed to the atmosphere
for three or four days, into varnish, commonly called "white hard varnish," or
into ordinary olive oil, or other oleaginous, fatty, or waxy matter, in a liquid
or a melted state, and allow them to remain therein until their surfaces are
saturated therewith. The effect of this portion of the process is to produce
the translucency or transparency of ivory and bone, together with brilliancy of
color when dyed.
Thirdly, I immerse the articles for an instant in water heated to a tempera-
ture of from one hundred to one hundred and fifty degrees of Fahrenheit, and
this immersion must be repeated at intervals of from ten to fifteen minutes till
the articles are well saturated if I wish to imitate the natural color and
appearance of ivory or bone; but I also charge the water with any particular
mordant, dye, or color if I intend to imitate dyed ivory or bone.
The mordants and dyes are prepared according te the ordinary methods
employed in dyeing, and any particular color or shade of color is obtained in
each article by dipping it successively in different dyes, or shades of the saine
dye, in the manner well known in the art of dyeing. This portion of the process
hardens and also colors the articles where a dye is used; and I find the time or

page_text: length of immersion required to thoroughly harden each article, after its satura-
tion as just described, varies with its size and shape, the largest article taking
about ten, and the smallest about two hours:
Articles prepared according to the above process may be polished easily and
rapidly with whiting or putty powder, in a lathe or against a wheel, after the
method usually employed to polish alabaster.
I think my first method is best suited to imitate ivory, and my second to
imitate bonc.
I do not claim, alone or together, the use of heat to evaporate the water in
combination with alabaster, gypsum, or other variety of native sulphate of lime
of which water is a constituent, or the use of water or dye to harden or color
it after such evaporation. But I claim the use of varnish commonly called
"white hard varnish," or of ordinary olive oil, or other oleaginous, fatty, or
waxy matter, in a liquid or in a melted state, in conjunction with the two other
stages of my process, whereby the translucency or transparency above stated is
obtained.
In witness whereof, I, the said Benjamin Cheverton, have to these
Presents set my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of December,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Nineteenth day of December,
in the year of our Lord 1850, the aforesaid Benjamin Cheverton came
before our said Ladly the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and speci-
fied, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was
stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Nineteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord