NEW-INVENTED ART OF MAKING BUTTONS OF BURNT EARTH OR PORCELAIN
Year: 1785

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHAL COME, THOMAS
DE LA MAYNE, of Charlotte Street, Rathbone Place, in the Parish of Saint
Pancras, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, sends greeting.
WHEREAS the King's most Excellent Majesty, by His Letters Patent,
under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster, the
Third day of May, in the twenty-fifth year of His reign, gave and granted unto
the said Thomas De la Mayne, his exors, adñiors, and assigns, His especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that he, the said Thomas
De la Mayne, his exors, adññors, and assigns, by himself or themselves, or by
his or their deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such other person or
persons as he, the said Thomas De la Mayne, should at any time agree with
and no other, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term of
years therein and herein-after expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend his "NEW-INVENTED ART OF MAKING BUTTONS OF BURNT
EARTH OR PORCELAIN," within that part of Great Britain called England and
Dominion of Wales and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner as
to him, the said Thomas De la Mayne, his exors, adñiors, or assigns, or any of
them, should in their discretion seem meet, and that he, the said Thomas
De la Mayne, his exors, admňors, and assigns, should and lawfully might have
and enjoy the whole profit, benefit, commodity, and advantage from time to
time coming, accruing, and arising, by reason of the said now Invention,
for and during and unto the full term of years theroin and herein-after
mentioned; to have and to hold, exercise, and enjoy the said licence, power,

page_text: privileges, and advantages herein-before mentioned to be granted unto the said
Thomas De la Mayne, his exors, aditiors, and assigns, of the sole use, exercise,
and vending of his said art of making buttons of earth or porcelain, for and
during and unto the full end and term of fourteen years from the date of the
said Letters Patent next and immediately ensuing, and fully to be compleat
and ended, according to the Statute in that case made and provided; in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that if the said Thomas
De la Mayne, his exors, adiñors, or assigns, or any other person or persons
which shall or may at any time hereafter during the continuance of the said
grant, have or claim any right, title, or interest at law or in equity of, in, or
to the power, privilege, and authority of the sole use and benefit of the said
Invention, should make any transfer or assignment, or any pretended transfer
or assignment, of the said liberty or privilege, or any share or shares of the
benefit or profits thereof to or for any number of persons exceeding the
number of five; and also that if the said Thomas De la Mayne should not
describe and ascertain the nature of his said Invention, or Art of Making
Buttons of Burnt Earth or Porcelain, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, by an instrument in writing under his hand and seal, and causé
the same to be inrolled in His Majestie's High Court of Chancery within
one kalendar month next and immediately after the date of the said Royal
Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advan-
tages whatsoever thereby granted, should utterly cease, determine, and become
void, anything therein contained to the contrary thereof in anywise notwith-
standing.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas De la Mayne, in pursuance of
and in compliance with the said proviso, in the said recited Royal Letters
Patent contained, do, by this present Instrument, declare that the nature
of my said Invention of the Art of Making Buttons of Burnt Earth or
Porcelain, and the manner in which the same is to be used or performed,
is described and ascertained in the manner following; that is to say :-
Take any of the composts commonly used in making china, porcelain, stone,
or other wares of burnt earths of various colours; mould or turn the same,
when tempered and dried, into buttons of any shape or fashion, according to
fancy; raise the under side into an exuberance or shoulder cone-like
pierce the same with holes or channels crossways, thereby to receive the
threads or other fastenings for fixing them to garments and vestments, taking
care to rub off all burrs which may happen to lodge thereon, and which migh
afterwards fret and cut the said threads; or mould and form them with shanks
pierced and turned into eyes or hoops, all of the same body, construction, and

page_text: fabrication of the main buttons for the like purpose of fastening them to coats
or vestments; or the said buttons may be moulded and shaped for being set in
various metals, or fixed to wire, gold, silver, or other metal shanks. Burn the
buttons so formed and fabricated in a very strong fire or kiln, commonly called
the biscuit kiln, till the same become a firm, hard, durable, and lasting con-
sistence or body. They may then be glazed in subsequent fires or kilns, called
the glazing and enamel kilns, with the usual opaque and transparent glazings,
as used in porcelain wares, and may be ornamented with enamel paintings,
gold and silver gildings, or plain surfaces, or in bass relieve, with other devices,
according to the taste and design of the manufacturer and wearer, or they may
be polished by the polishing wheel in their first state of hardness to a lustro
equal to enamel.
The essential part of my said invented buttons is their being made of china,
porcelain, earthen or stone ware, as aforesaid, never before attempted; and
also their being formed with pierced shoulders and shanks, as aforesaid, all of
one solid body and construction, without requiring the addition of box, ivory, or
other moulds or shanks for fastening the same.
In witness whereof, the said Thomas De la Mayne hath hereunto set his
hand and seal, the Twenty-sixth day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand seven hundred and eighty-five.
THOS (L.S.) DE LA MAYNE.
Sealed and delivered, being first duly
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-sixth day of May,
in the year of our Lord 1785, the aforesaid Thomas De la Mayne came
before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledge the Speci-
fication aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in
form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according
to the tenor of the Statutes made for that purpose.
the Trente-sixth day of May. in the year of our Lord One