IMPROVEMENTS IN MANTEL- PIECES
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Potts, of Birmingham, in the County
of Warwick, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MANTEL-
PIECES."
Sealed the 29th March 1854, and dated the 8th October 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Potts at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 8th October 1858.
I, WILLIAM POTTS, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
5 do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MANTEL PIECES " to be as follows:-
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Potts at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 8th October 1853.
J, WILLIAM POTTS, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
5 do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MANTEL PIECES " to be as follows:-
The combination of metal work deposited or partly deposited by the
processes of electro-metallurgy with marble or stone work.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Potts in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 5th April 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
WILLIAM POTTS, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the seven-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Potts, Her special licence
that I, the said William Potts, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said William Potts, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MANTEL PIECES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
William Potts, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the
same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Potts, do hereby
declare the nature of.my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, that is to say:
My Invention consists in combining electro-type deposits in coppe
or other metal with marble or stone work for mantel-pieces. And the
manner in which my Invention is to be performed is as follows:-Having
designed the architectural parts of mantel-pieces, or those which com
pose the framework, and which are to be executed in marble or ston
in the usual manner, I decorate and enrich them with sculptural o

page_text: ornamental subjects, which may form mouldings or fill up panels or
otherwise, by combining therewith metal work deposited by the known
processes with the galvanic battery in flexible or other moulds as
most convenient. This metal work when bronzed or finished by the
ordinary processes is fitted and attached to the marble or stone
architectural parts of the mantel-pieces by screws and burs, or spring
plugs, or any other convenient means. By this combination I effect
the production of highly artistic and well relieved effects at a very
moderate comparative cost with the advantage of durability, and slight
liability to injury in the decorative features of the designs, coupled with
facility for removal to allow of the marble being repolished. In some
cases I employ ornamental or decorative subjects cast in metal and
electro-plated, instead of using subjects produced entirely by the pro-
cess of electro-deposition.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claini
as my improvements in mantel-pieces is, the combination of metal
work deposited or partly deposited by the processes of electro-metal-
lurgy with marble or stone work.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Potts, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fourth day of April, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-four.
WILLIAM POTTS. (L.S.)
Dated this Fourth day of April, 1854.