IMPROVEMENTS IN ORNAMENTING WALLS. CEILINGS. AND OTHER SURFACES
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Riddle, of East Temple Chambers,
in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN ORNAMENTING WALLS. CEILINGS. AND OTHER SURFACES."
Sealed the 16th March 1858, and dated the 20th January 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Riddle at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 20th January 1853.
I, WILLIAM RIDDLE, of East Temple Chambers, in the County of
5 Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN ORNAMENTING WALLS, CEILINGS, AND OTHER SURFACES"
to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in using glass rolled or pressed in pieces
which have raised figures, as, for example, leaves or scrolls, on the
O surface, which may be described as in relief, embossed, uneven, or
undulating, and made by the rolling or pressing; these pieces being
used so as to form patterns or designs by combinations of the pieces,
either with or without ornaments in other materials, for ornamenting
walls, ceilings, and other surfaces, and heing coloured by copper foils

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Riddle in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 20th July 1858.
•
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
WILLIAM RIDDLE, of East Temple Chambers, in the County of Middlesex,
send greeting.
35
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of January, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the six-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said. William Riddle, Her special licence
that I, the said, William Riddle, my executors, administrators; and
assigns, or such others as I, the said William, Riddle, 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-night 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 ORNAMENTING WALLS, CEILINGS, AND OTHER SURFACES," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said William Riddle, by an instru-
ment in writing under my hand and seal, should, particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention; 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 imme-.
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent..
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said, William Riddle, do hereby.
declare the nature of the 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):
This Invention consists in using glass rolled or pressed in pieces.
which have raised figures, as, for example, leaves or scrolls,: on, the.
•

page_text: surface, which may be described as in relief, embossed, uneven, or
undulating, and made by the rolling or pressing; these pieces being
used so as to form patterns or designs by combinations of the pieces,
either with or without ornaments in other materials, for ornamenting
walls, ceilings, and other surfaces, and being colored by copper foils
or other substances placed at the back or left uncoloured, as may be
required.
In carrying my said Invention into practise I take pieces of glass
which have been fashioned by pouring the glass, otherwise known as
metal, when in a soft state from the crucible or pot into iron moulds
or other moulds carved or indented or shaped according to the re-
quired pattern, and then pressing the metal mould with the glass
upon it under an iron roller, or causing it to be pressed upon with
great pressure in some other way, so as to impress the glass with the
pattern that is on the iron or other metal mould, which means of
moulding glass for various purposes are well known.
The glass may be sunk in or made hollow at the back corresponding
with the figure on the front of the glass by having what may be termed
a female or obverse mould or die, or a roller carved with an obverse
impression, or made to receive obverse pieces or female dies or parts
into a portion or part of the circular surface of such roller; or a press
may be used of another description for pressing the said female or
obverse die for giving to pieces of glass an obverse or sunken impres-
sion at the back, hollowed out corresponding with the front impression
or figure, just as card 'board is now embossed, so as to be in relief in
the front and sunken or hollowed at the back.
The glass when removed from the mould is to be trimmed round the
edges by marking with a diamond and breaking off parts so marked,
or cut with a wheel, and they may be polished or ground on the
surface or altered in shape and appearance according to any of the
known ways of working on glass.
I take any number of the pieces of glass so fashioned, and if the wall
or surface to be decorated according to my Invention is of wood 1-
place the glass, using either side-of the several picces, upwards or outer-
most on the wood, and fasten thereto by mouldings of wood, papier

page_text: inaché, or other material, arranging the pieces in any desired patterns,
or in repetition of the. one same pattern; and to heighten apparently the
color of the glass or subdue the color I foil the pieces with copper foils
placed at the back of the pieces of stamped glass, or foil certain parts
of the pattern on the pieces of glass, and paint other parts of the said
pieces, or silver the back of the glass by any known process, or procure
it so to have the appearance of being silvered at the back, or ornament
in any other way the back of any of the pieces or parts thereof, unless
the glass is used by preference unfoiled or unpainted, as if it is opaque,
opal, turqouise, or jet black glass, or from any other reason.
When the glass pieces are hollowed or sunk at the back, or, in other
words, on one or other of the two sides, the foils may be laid in, or
embossed foils or other materials fitted, to the hollow parts of such
glass pieces to give a different or more effective appearance of relief
when viewed from the other side.
The above suggestions with regard to foiling are made for the use of
the workman in carrying out this Invention, and not as possessing any
novelty, except as used in connection with pieces of such pressed or
embossed glass as aforesaid, for decorating walls, ceilings, and other
surfaces.
Figure 1, shows part of a wooden wall or panel decorated according
to my Invention. a, a, a, in Figure 1, and in Figure 4, are pieces of
pressed glass exhibiting a pressed ornamentation on the surface sup-
posed to be foiled with red foil, and held by the gilded moulding b
which is nailed or glued down. Figure 4, shows a portion of this
moulding and glass on a larger scale, a side view in section. C, is a
piece of pressed glass foiled only at the central raised part d, so as to
make that particular part like a gem or jewel, and the other part of the
piece e, e, is blacked at the back so as to produce a ground of contrast,
and help to throw forward to view the stamped pattern at d, on that
particular piece of glass. Figure 2, represents a sectional view of
a piece of glass with a figure or embossed part in relief upon it, and
sunk at the back by an obverse mould or female matrix or die corre-
sponding with but. somewhat smaller than the said figure, to allow of
the thickness of glass between the two moulds or dies in manipulating

page_text: or moulding the said piece after the manner before mentioned. a, is
the sunken side or part so made for foiling or painting or otherwise
ornamenting at the sunken part, so as to produce a different effect
when viewed from the front side than would a piece of glass rolled or
pressed flat at every part of the back, as in the case of Figure 3. -
The pieces of glass in the course of decorating after my Invention need
not be fastened to a wall or other surface separately and distinctively, but
may be fastened or attached on to boards or panels, and the boards or
panels so decorated and otherwise embellished may be attached to the
wall or other surface, this being for the more conveniently putting
together and finishing work of a decorative character.
The arranging of stamped glass in patterns and designs is in itself not
new, the same having been done for windows for churches and other edi-
fices, as is well known. My Invention, however, has no reference.to
what may be properly included under the denomination of windows. If
in the ornamenting of a church screen or panel, say in the front of an
altar, which ornamentation I wish to be viewed from both sides, ⚫I
frame glass after the manner used for windows made of pressed glass,
using in the frame pieces of glass placed back to back and foiled
between so as to be opaque; and the intention being of an ornamental
panel as distinguished from a window, and also not admitting light, as
does a window, then such structure will be according to my Invention,
and will consist of a foiled surface of glass, if viewed from either side,
the glass on either side serving as the back ground or wall or surface
upon which is mounted the foil and glass visible on turning from one
to the other side.
•
. I do not confine myself to any particular mode of affixing the glass
in my Invention. I have used lengths of gutta percha warmed and
pressed round the pieces when arranged in patterns on wood, the gutta
percha being affixed to the wood by the aid of a cement sold under the
name of "chouca," which being melted by heat is used to assist in
fastening the warmed and softened bands or strips of gutta percha along
and around the edges of the glass on the wood, and which may be
additionally secured by needle points hammered through the gutta percha.
into the wood, or by other fastenings. Also I have used copper brads
or nails of the shape shown by the Drawing at e. Figure 5, shows &
0

page_text: piece of glass fastened down by brads (the heads of which only are
seen) on to a piece of wood panel. If foiled the pieces so fastened must
be stopped from air entering underneath at the edges by a stopping or
luting afterwards applied: The glass pieces may be also fastened down
by embossed metal frames or mounts made by dies, or rollers, as such
things are made in metal. Also the glass may be fastened to wood,
papier maché, cement,. Ransome's patent silicious stone, or some such
material, by causing the said materials to be moulded or cut with cavities
into which to inlay or set the pieces of glass. The cavities being of the
shape of the required pièces, and the pieces being held in the cavities
by a cement or luting, and foiled if desirable in the course of fixing in
the cavities. A way of using the glass pieces with plaster is to have
the pieces roughed at the edges, and partially imbedded upside down,
but with the edges exposed in the loam or sand used in casting or
moulding. When the pieces are duly arranged in the requisite figures
or patterns, plaster of Paris or other cement may be suitably mixed for
using, and poured or plastered over the whole, and when set the sand
may be removed and scraped away, leaving a tablet or wall of plaster
inlaid with the said pieces of pressed glass, the pieces being held by
their roughed edges in the plaster, and otherwise secured afterwards;
or in some work the pieces may be taken out of the plaster and foiled,
and replaced and fixed in the cavities, or may be foiled and backed with
a covering before being used or set in the plaster. When the glass is
foiled, in order to prevent damp getting between the foil and the glass,
the substructure on which the foil and glass is laid may be prepared
with paint or marine glue, lead, or tin leaf, pitch, or any substance
which will help to keep out damp from the foil or other substances
used at the back of the glass. I would recommend cementing the metal"
foils to the glass by copal or mastic varnish for some work.
I wish it to be understood particularly that in order to subdue the
effect that would be produced by too much glass being massed together,
I propose to use considerable spaces between the pieces of glass, or the
small groups of pieces of glass, the said spaces being occupied by some
substance of a less. brilliant character, dead and not glittering as the
glass may be, as dead gold mouldings, dead crimson or blue ornaments
or surfaces, stone, work, cements, -polished wood, or other contrasting

page_text: substances, to alleviate and tone down the rich embroidery-like effect
which may be supposed to be produced by the figured pressed glass
parts of the decoration, especially when illuminated by reflecting sub-
stances, as foils placed at the back.
In order to set out accurately the pieces of glass in constructing or
arranging a decoration after my Invention on wood, I may make use
of printed papers, lithographed in colors, and first fastened to the wood,
or the best of medieval kind in design of paper hangings, such affording
distance and measurement for laying on the glass, and also helping to
contribute to the decoration by their ornamental character, especially if
farther painted or embellished, as may be found convenient; the glass
to be fastened to the wood by nails or cements as aforesaid, and foiled
or otherwise, as afore described.
This Invention, as well as being applied to walls and ceilings, will
be found valuable for decorating the surfaces of cabinets, doors,
balustrades, tables, frames, pedestals, screens, chandaliers, and other
ornamented furniture or objects. Also the glass pieces may be used for
constructing banquet decorations and ornamental devices in such a way.
as readily to be separated and recombined in some other device, by due
care being had to design the glass pieces and ornaments and fastenings
with a view to their separation and recombination after the manner, by
way of illustration, in which the types used by printers for ornamental
borders and devices are designed with the view to combining in various
designs or patterns.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Riddle, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
Witness,
JNO. COOK,
12, Cursitor Street.
WILLIAM RIDDLE. (L.S.)