IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OR MANU- FACTURE OF MATERIALS OR FABRICS SUITABLE FOR ORNAMENTING FURNITURE AND OTHER ARTICLES
Year: 1851

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
PUCKRIDGE, of Kingsland Place, in the County of Middlesex, Merchant,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Seventeenth day of April, in the fourteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs, and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Frederick Puckridge, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege, and
authority, that I, the said Frederick Puckridge, my exors, admors, and assigns,
and such others as I, the said Frederick Puckridge, my exors, adiñors, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OR MANU-
FACTURE OF MATERIALS OR FABRICS SUITABLE FOR ORNAMENTING FURNITURE
AND OTHER ARTICLES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso
obliging me, the said Frederick Puckridge, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the
same to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Frederick Puckridge, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following description thereof (that is to say) :-
My Invention of improvements in the preparation or manufacture of
materials or fabrics suitable for ornamenting furniture and other articles
consists in covering thin transparent or semi-transparent materials, such as
the prepared gut or skins of animals, weazens, bladders, goldbeaters' skin, or
other thin membranous materials, either alone or in combination with light
fabrics, such as silks, satins, and fine linens, with gold leaf, silver leaf, metal
leaf, gold or silver powder, or bronze powders.
The materials or fabric to be covered with the metallic leaf or powder is
prepared or coated with gold size, japanners' gold size, burnish gold size, or
other similar or suitable adhesive matter or composition, after which the gold,
silver, or metallic leaf, or the gold, silver, bronze, or other metallic powder, is
applied to the prepared surface, and will be found to adhere firmly thereto.
The guts, skins, bladders, weazens, or other thin transparent or semi-
transparent membranous parts of animals so ornamented with gold, silver, or
other metallic leaf or powder, may be used alone and employed for ornamental
purposes in this state, and may also be spun or twisted into music strings, but
if required the membranous material may (either before or after it is provided
with the metallic covering) be attached by means of size or other suitable
adhesive matter or composition to light woven fabrics, such as silks, satins,
fine linens or similar fine fabrics, and in this state will be found peculiarly appli-
cable for ornamenting curtains and various kinds of furniture or other
articles. The thin membranous material thus provided with a metallic
surface will (when unattached to woven fabrics) be found to have on both
sides all the appearance and lustre of the metal with which it is coated,
and will possess the further advantage of strength and tenacity, so that
the material may be employed for various ornamental purposes, such as for
ornamenting various parts of ladies dress or other purposes to which it may
be applicable.
Having now described my Invention, and the best means with which I
am acquainted for carrying the same into effect, I would observe in con-
clusion that I do not mean or intend to claim as new the gilding or
silvering of leather or other thick materials, that having been long known
and in use, but that which I consider to be new, and therefore wish to
claim as the Invention secured to me under the herein-before in part
recited Letters Patent, is, covering the surface of goldbeaters' skin, gut, bladder,

page_text: or other thin translucent or transparent membranous substance or material
with gold, silver, or other metallic leaf, or gold, silver, or other metallic
powder, so as to impart to the material or substance thus prepared the
appearance and lustre of real metal; and I claim the application of such
prepared membranous substance or material, either alone or attached to or
in combination with various thin fabrics, such as silks, satins, linens, or
other light fabrics for ornamenting furniture, articles of dress, or other
articles for which it may be applicable.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Puckridge, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.