IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION AND TREATMENT OF PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS OR PICTURES."
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Napoleon Sarony, of Birmingham, in the County
of Warwick, Artist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
PRODUCTION AND TREATMENT OF PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS OR PICTURES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Napoleon Sarony at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
9th June 1864.
I, NAPOLEON SARONY, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Artist,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE PRODUCTION AND TREATMENT OF PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS OR PICTURES," to be
as follows, that is to say:-
This Invention consists of improved modes of imparting to photographs the
appearance of drawings or engravings; this I effect by printing upon the
photograph a background or foreground in sketchy touches, lines, or tints,
such as artists finish their crayon or other drawings with, or as engravers
produce their tint; and for this printing I employ lithography, copper-plate,
wood engraving, or any other suitable method; or, by another mode, I print
the touches, lines, or tint upon the paper upon which the photograph is to be
taken, leaving the space for the portrait or picture, which may be subsequently
produced upon it.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Napoleon Sarony in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
9th December 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, NAPOLEON
SARONY, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Artist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Napoleon Sarony, Her special licence that I, the said Napoleon Sarony,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Napoleon Sarony, 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
THE PRODUCTION AND TREATMENT OF PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS OR PICTURES,"
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Napoleon Sarony, 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 immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
upon
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Napoleon Sarony, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement (that is to say):-
This Invention consists of improved modes of imparting to photographs the
, appearance of drawings or engravings; this I effect by printing upon the
photograph a background or foreground in sketchy touches, lines, or tints,
such as artists finish their crayon or other drawings with, or as engravers
produce their tint; and for this printing I employ photography, lithography,
-copper-plate, wood engraving, or any other suitable method; or, by another
mode, I print the touches, lines, or tint, upon the paper upon which the
photograph is to be taken, leaving the space for the portrait or picture, which
may be subsequently produced upon it.
In producing this effect by means of photographic printing I first proceed
to obtain the negative picture of the sitter or other subject in vignette in the

page_text: ordinary well known manner, and I then take a second negative upon glass;
this second negative consists merely of the hatching or sketchy lines photo-
graphed upon the glass from a chalk, pencil, or other drawing of such lines;
I then take my picture in vignette and afterwards by means of the second or
etching negative photograph the lines upon the picture, the light being
prevented from acting upon the face of the portrait, or upon any desired part
of the picture, and developing the lines only, by blocking out such parts as
should not have the lines at the back of the vignetting glass; or, by another
process, I can produce the effect of etched vignettes by etching the lines by
acid upon the usual vignetting glass, employing if necessary thin varnish or
any other suitable medium as a coating for the etching lines, and to produce
half tints, if the crude lines should print too darkly; or I can coat the
vignetting glass with japan varnish, then scratch the etching lines through
the varnish, and produce the half tint, as above described, by coating the
lines with thin varnish or any other suitable material. To produce the same
effect by other modes of printing, such as lithography, copper-plate, or wood
engraving, I merely print the lines from the stone, plate, or block, upon the
paper upon which the photographic picture is to be taken, or after it has been
taken.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I claim, without limiting myself to these
precise details, the improvements in the production and treatment of photo-
graphic portraits or pictures, in imparting to them the appearance of drawings
or engravings, by the means and in manner herein more fully set forth and
specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said Napoleon Sarony, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventh day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
NAPOLEON SARONY. (L.S.)