A NEW, AND CURIOUS METHOD. OF TAKING AND REDUCING SHADOWS, WITH APPENDAGES AND APPARATUS NEVER BEFORE KNOWN OR USED IN THE ABOVE ART, FOR THE PURPOSE OF TAKING LIKENESSES, FURNITURE, AND DECORATIONS, EITHER THE INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL PART OF ROOMS, BUILDINGS &C., IN MINIATURE, SO AS TO BEAR AN EXACT; STRIKING, AND MOST ACCURATE RESEMBLANCE AND TRUE MATHEMATICAL PROPORTION. OF THE ORIGINAL
Year: 1775

page_text: HARRINGTON'S SPECIFICATION:
"
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS..SHALL COME, I, SARAH
HARRINGTON, Wife of Thomas Harrington, of Hercules Buildings, Lambeth,
in the County of Surry, Gentleman; send greeting..
i
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal. of Great Britain, bearing, date the
Twenty-fourth day of June, in the fifteenth year of His reign, give and grant
unto me, the said Sarah Harrington, His especial licence: that I, the said Sarah
Harrington, during the term of years therein. expressed, should and lawfully
might use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, and also within all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations
abroad, my Invention of "A NEW, AND CURIOUS METHOD. OF TAKING AND REDUCING
SHADOWS, WITH APPENDAGES AND APPARATUS NEVER BEFORE KNOWN OR USED IN THE
ABOVE ART, FOR THE PURPOSE OF TAKING LIKENESSES, FURNITURE, AND DECORATIONS,
EITHER THE INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL PART OF ROOMS, BUILDINGS, &C., IN MINIATURE,
SO AS TO BEAR AN EXACT; STRIKING, AND MOST ACCURATE RESEMBLANCE AND TRUE
MATHEMATICAL PROPORTION. OF THE ORIGINAL;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a provisoe. obliging me, the said Sarah Harrington, under
my hand and seal, to cause a particular: description of the nature of my said
Invention, and how. the same is to be performed,. to be enrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within four calender months after the date
of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, (relation being
thereunto had,) may more fully and at large appear....
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said provisoe, I, the said
Sarah Harrington, do hereby declare that my said Invention of a New and
Curious Method of Taking and Reducing Shadows, with Appendages and Ap-
paratus never before known or used in the above Art, for the Purpose of taking

page_text: Likenesses, Furniture, and Decorations, either the Internal or External Part
of Rooms, Buildings, &c., in Miniature, so as to bear an Exact, Striking, and
most Accurate Resemblance, and True Mathematical Proportion of the
Original, is described in the manner following (that is to say) :-
The person whose likeness is to be taken is to be placed steady, and in such
a situation as to procure his or her shadow to the best advantage, either by the
rays of the sun received through an apperture into a darkened room, or by
illuminating the room with a lamp, candle, or any other light, The party
is then placed with the side of his or her face directly opposite the light, so
that the shadow may be reflected through a glass (or transparent paper), which
glass is made moveable in a frame for the more facile lifting it up and down,
so as to fix it on a level direction with the head of the person to be taken; thus
will a profile likeness be truly reflected through the glass on the paper in a
large shadow as big as life. The outlines of this shadow is then carefully
traced with a pencil, &c., after which reduced to a minature size by an
instrument called a pentagrapher, made for the purpose of reducing maps,
plans, and pictures, but now first used for reducing shadows.
To take furniture and internal decorations of rooms, such as ornaments,
chairs, china, &c.-The articles required to be taken are to be placed in such a
direction that their shadows may be reflected as above described, traced out
in the same manner, and reduced as before mentioned; after which those
shadows, as also the above likenesses, are carefully cut out according to
their reduced outlines, and placed upon black or other coloured paper, or
any dark body, whose contrast will shew the outlines to the most advan-
tage. The external parts are then, if required, decorated with cut paper,
&c., according to the desire of the party, or taste of the artist. When a
likeness is be taken, accompanied with the external part of a room or
buildings, a camera obscura is used, which reflects all objects in minia-
ture.
Those reflected shadows are received on paper; their outlines carefully
mark'd, and then either fill'd up with Indian ink or colored, or cut out as
above directed; but when the figures are numerous, Indian ink is the most
expeditious method of finishing them, which is also used when the bust of
à person is required, either to make it intirely black, or to throw in the
features.
In witness whereof, I, the said Sarah Harrington, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of October, One thousand
seven hundred and seventy-five.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBRED, that on the same Fourteenth day of October,
in the year above said, the aforesaid Sarah Harrington came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification of her
Invention aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specifyed,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt
according to the tenor of the Statute made in the sixth year of the reign of
the late King and Queen William and Mary of England, and so forth.