Year: 1887

page_text: We, THOMAS MINTON, Chairman, HERBERT MINTON-SENHOUSE, Director, HERBERT
MINTON ROBINSON, Secretary, JAMES CLEGG and JOSEPH LEA, Potters, all of Mintons
Limited, of Stoke upon Trent in the County of Stafford, do hereby declare the nature
of this invention to be as follows:-
By this invention patterns can be printed upon the same sheet of paper by the
combined processes of surface or block printing or of lithography and of engraving or
etching or any other method of producing an incised pattern intended to be transferred
to pottery or tiles.
For applying the combined processes of surface or block printing and of engraving
or etching we use a surface or block or letter printing press with an iron bed or table,
for printing a pattern incised on copper or other material.
On opposite margins of a plate of metal or other suitable material upon which a
pattern is engraved or otherwise incised, two small holes are pierced, into which fit
two studs fixed on the table of the press; the incised parts are then filled with color
in the usual manner,
and the plate and bars fitted into their places on the bed of
the press.
On the tympan of the press are fitted two rows of points upon which the paper can
be placed any number of times in exactly the same position.
The object of the two studs, the bars and the two rows of points, is to ensure the
exact registering of the various impressions to be taken off on the same paper.
The paper is placed upon the plate and upon the paper is laid a flat sheet of india-
rubber or other soft and flexible substance, which, under pressure, draws the whole of
the color from the plate and causes it to adhere firmly to the paper which would not
be the case by the ordinary method of block printing on pottery.
The whole is then submitted to the vertical pressure of an ordinary block-printing
press the soft material is removed, the paper taken from the plate and replaced on
the points of the tympan, and the engraved or otherwise incised plate is replaced by a
block of metal or other material upon which the color has been rolled, and the usual

page_text: surface or block printing process is then adopted, using a succession of metal or other
blocks according to the number of colors required, each block being cut to register
with the first named incised-plate; the result being that each color from the block is
defined and shaded by the impression from the metal plate first used.
This invention dispenses with the necessity of using the block printing process, as
hitherto, for the fine outlines and shading; the hand roller used in that process, being
liable to cut through the paper, where fine lines are necessary, and to unfit it for
use, which is not the case when the metal plate with the incised pattern is
substituted.
It also dispenses with the old printing press, in which the pressure is obtained by
passing the plate between rollers, by which process the pattern cannot be registered
with the subsequent prints from the block press.
Dated this 2nd day of November 1887

page_text: A New Method of Printing upon Pottery and Tiles.
We, THOMAS MINTON, Chairman, HERBERT MINTON-SENHOUSE, Director, HERBERT
MINTON ROBINSON, Secretary, JAMES CLEGG and JOSEPH LEA, Potters, all of Mintons
Limited, of Stoke upon Trent, in the County of Stafford, do hereby declare the nature
of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :
'
By this invention patterns are printed upon the same sheet of paper by the combined
processes of surface printing and engraved or incised plato printing. The pattern so
printed on the paper is afterwards transferred in the well known manner to pottery
or tiles.
The blocks for surface printing we use of any suitable metal and we prepare them
by the ordinary wood cutting process but they may be otherwise produced. We
employ a separate block for each of the colors of the design.
The incised plates we usually prepare by engraving or etching on copper but they
may be prepared by any of the known processes for the production of incised printing
plates. On the engraved plates the outline and more or less of the line shading of
the design is produced.
We employ to print from these blocks and plates a printing press such as is commonly
used in printing from wood cuts and type by flat pressure.
Both the blocks and the plates are made up to type height.
On the flat bed of the press we provide register pins so that the plates and the
blocks may be accurately placed in the press.
We print upon the paper first with the incised plate or plates. The lines of the
plate are filled with color and the excess is wiped off from the plate in the
usual way.
The paper is placed upon the plate and upon the paper is laid a flat sheet of india
rubber or other soft and flexible substance, which, under pressure, draws the whole of
the color from the plate and causes it to adhere firmly to the paper.
The paper is then removed from the press to which however it is brought back for
further printing operations. Register marks are printed on the paper by the plate.
Also on the tympan of the press are fitted two rows of points upon which the paper
can be placed any number of times in exactly the same position.
The paper having been thus printed by means of the incised plate is next printed
by one of the surface printing blocks which is used in the ordinary manner, the color
is put on with a roller or dabber and the paper is applied to the register points on the
tympan.
The paper is thus printed in turn by each of the printing surfaces.
The completed design being thus obtained on the paper, it is transferred in the usual
manner from the paper to the pottery.
In place of paper it is possible to employ transfer sheets of other material but paper
is preferred.

page_text: Sometimes we combine lithographic printing with printing from incised plates. The
lithographic stone has its portion of the design produced upon it in the usual manner;
the ink or color employed is suitable for working with a lithographic stone and is
applied to the stone in the manner usual in lithographic printing otherwise the stone
is worked in the press in same way as the surface printing blocks; the paper is
either put on to the register points or is laid to register marks provided on
the stone.
This invention dispenses with the necessity of using printing blocks to produce fine
outlines and shading for which they are not well suited.
By the use of the flat press we are able to collect the several parts of the design on
to one transfer surface which serves to convey it to the pottery or to the tiles which the
design is intended to ornament.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is -
:-
1. The method of ornamenting pottery and tiles consisting in printing upon a
transfer sheet with engraved or incised plates and with surface printing blocks and in
transferring the design so produced by several (two or more) printings to the surface
of pottery ware as herein described.
2. The method of ornamenting pottery and tiles consisting in printing upon a
transfer sheet with engraved or incised plates and with lithographic surfaces and in
transferring the design so produced by several printings to the surface of pottery ware
as herein described.
Dated this 31st day of July 1686.
THOS. MINTON.
H. MINTON-SENHOUSE.
H. M. ROBINSON.
JAMES CLEGG.
JOSEPH LEA.