CERTAIN BOXES OF A NEW AND IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION, OF VARIOUS FORMS AND SIZES, TO CONTAIN CERTAIN NEW AND IMPROVED MATERIALS AND OTHER NECESSARY ARTICLES FOR DRAWING AND PAINTING; LIKEWISE AN ENTIRE NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD OF ARRANGING, ON SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES, THE COLOURS TO BE CONTAINED IN THE SAID BOXES
Year: 1801

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
ROBERT GUEST, of Portsmouth, in the County of Hants, Artist, do send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Second day of June, in the
forty-first year of His reign, did give and grant unto me, the said Thomas
Robert Guest, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Thomas Robert
Guest, my executors, administrators, and assigns, during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in
all His Majestie's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN
BOXES OF A NEW AND IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION, OF VARIOUS FORMS AND SIZES, TO
CONTAIN CERTAIN NEW AND IMPROVED MATERIALS AND OTHER NECESSARY ARTICLES
FOR DRAWING AND PAINTING; LIKEWISE AN ENTIRE NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD OF
ARRANGING, ON SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES, THE COLOURS TO BE CONTAINED IN THE SAID
BOXES;" in which Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the
said Thomas Robert Guest, under my hand and seal, to cause a particular de-
scription of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within one calendar month next and immediately 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Robert Guest, do hereby declare
that my said Invention of a new box or boxes, and materials for painting
and drawing, and my new manner of arranging the pallet of colours, and
certain new materials that are to be contained therein, by which the art of
drawing or painting in colours will be rendered more simple and generally
useful, is described as follows:-
The boxes, of whatever size or shape or material they may be made, are to
be so formed as, to contain with convenience either a round, or square, or oval,
or any other shaped piece of marble, or wood, or metal, or stone, or porcelain,
or pottery, or glass, or other proper material or composition, or combination of
materials of any kind, either coated or plain; which piece of marble, or
wood, or metal, or stone, or porcelain, or pottery, or glass, or other material,
is absolutely necessary for or to my new arrangement of the pallet of colours,
and which I shall hereafter, in this Specification, call by the name of a pallet
of colours; and the box or boxes will be made subservient to it, and so con-
trived that this pallet of colours will be sometimes fitted in the top or cover, or
in a drawer, either in the front, end, or side, or some other convenient place,
for the purpose of receiving it, but in such a manner that this pallet of colours
may be easily removed, if wanted for use, by the artist or person drawing or
painting; and that the colours are to be arranged, or fixed on, or let into it, by
certain places being made or sunk into the pallet to receive them, and these
places will sometimes be of a long, square, or of an oval, or a round, or indeed
any other shape that may be found best adapted for the purposes intended, by
which means the colours are guarded from all dirt or dust. They cannot be
misplaced. The artist has no occasion to apply to a plate or other material
to rub his colours on when used, the pallet on which they are arranged
and fixed "serving for that purpose, and which may be easily cleaned
when necessary with a damp sponge. The colours are to be fixed or let into
the pallet, so as not to be removed or to fall out, which is done by first caking
them in the usual manner, and afterwards fastening them in, while damp,
by some mucilagenous mixture, such as gum water, or any other that will
not injure them. It is hardly necessary to observe, that of whatever material
the pallet be made, it should be presented in an unglazed or unpolished state.
Thus, if made of marble or other stone, it should be left as smooth as possible,
but unpolished; if of wood, it must be coated with a composition of oil, flake
white, and calx of tin, or any other composition that will answer the purpose of
resisting the penetration of water, and left as smooth as possible, but not
polished nor glazed. If of metal, it should be enamelled and ground smooth,
but left with a tooth and without polish; if of porcelain, to be left in the biscuit

page_text: state; if of glass, it should, in the vitrification, be mixed with the calx of tin; or
any other material that will make an opaque white enamel of it, and when made
of the proper shape it should be ground and left without polish. Let it be
observed, that I do not wish to state that the. colours may not be mixed
on glazed or polished substances, but unglazed and unpolished bodies for 'thát
purpose are much superior. The convenience and utility of this pallet of
colours every experienced and professional man will see, and it will remove the
inconveniences above mentioned, which the younger practitioners liave hitherto
laboured under. The colours will likewise be arranged and fixed on or into.
the pallet in the following order, according to the principia optica, videlicet:
The three original colours, yellow, red, and blue, will be fixed on or into the
pallet, and so arranged as to shew their intermédiate shades, viz', from yellow,
the degrees of orange to red; 'from red, the degrees of purple to blue, with the
different degrees of green, and the browns resulting from a mixture of 'the
three original colours; which arrangements will include every possible tone or
tint that can be presented to the eye; and the colours and tints will be arranged
on or in the pallet so that the Numbers 1, 2, 3, etc., will indicate the tone or
tint of each, and may be called yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, green, and
brown, etc., without any reference to the original name of any particulár
pigment or chemical preparation at present in use, unlike the present method
which, by naming the pigment contrary to its real tone of colour (tho' the
experienced artist may remove the difficulties from himself), serves only to
mislead the student, and those not previously acquainted with the use of colours;
without conveying any idea of the tone or tint of colour wanted. But, by the
above-arranged pallet of colours, the master is eased, the student improved,
and a rational and simple theory will go hand in hand with the practical part.
The colours in the larger boxes, and on the larger pallets, will likewise be
divided into transparent or glazing, and opage or body colours; the transparent
being fixed on or let into one side, and the opaque on or into the other side of
the pallet to prevent confusion. And the transparent and opaque colours are to
be arranged in the same manner, with regard to the degrees of tone and
situation, which will enable the artist to produce to effect he wishes, according
to his stile or mode of practice with the opaque; and he may, by turning
his pallet, inrich and glaze his painting with the transparent colours without
rendering them foul or muddy.
Having described the nature of my Invention as regards the boxes and the
arrangement of the pallet of colours, I will proceed to state the means of ren-
dering this Invention still more convenient to the public, which consists in
adding to the boxes such articles as will supply the artist with every utensil
and material that he can want, and those of the best quality. In the larger

page_text: boxes capable of containing them will be introduced the necessary varnishes,
with directions for their use; and as the usual pallet knives, with blades com-
posed of iron, steel, or silver, are very detrimental to the colours, even to the
total destruction of some of them, as may be instanced in the pigment called
Naples yellow, which is changed to a dirty greenish colour, when rubbed or
mixed with such knives, a knife formed out of shell, or ivory, or horn,
or wood, will be substituted in their stead. Camel, fitch, and sable pencils will
be added, as usual, of an improved quality, with new pencils of cork, pumice
stone, and sponge, for raising out or producing the lights of washed drawings.
Port crayons, pencil racks, water glasses, and parallel rulers, will also be intro-
duced into the said boxes. But as the before-mentioned pallet of colors can be
removed from the boxes above described, I fix them, to those intended for the
army and navy, in the niost portable and convenient manner, to carry in the
pocket, to use as occasion may offer; and in general they will not take up more
room than a small-sized pocket or note book, and will be often made of that
size and form, with only the three original colours, which are all that are
wanted for navy signals. To these will be added brown and black to those
intended for the reconnoitring sketches of the army, the great advantage of
which will be self-evident, as the colours and pallet are fixed, with room for the
pencils and cards. The box or book may be shut in the most hurried moments
without defacing or injury to the sketch.
11
In addition to the advantages arising from the above-mentioned pallet of
colours, etc., I have only to observe, that the colours will be of a very superior
quality in fineness, tone of colour, durability, and ease in the working.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Robert Guest, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this First day of July, One thousand eight