THE MANNER OF DESIGING, MAKING, AND FORMING MOSAICS AND ORNAMENTS IN THE ARABIAN STILE AND MANNER, WHICH I PURPOSE TO APPLY TO DIVERS ARTS AND MANUFACTURES
Year: 1809

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
CAVANAH MURPHY, of Edward Street, Cavendish Square, in the County of
Middlesex, Architect, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of July, in the
forty-ninth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said James Cavanah
Murphy, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole
privilege, and authority, that I, the said James Cavanah Murphy, my exors,
adñiors, and assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my discovery of "THE MANNER OF DESIGING,
MAKING, AND FORMING MOSAICS AND ORNAMENTS IN THE ARABIAN STILE AND
MANNER, WHICH I PURPOSE TO APPLY TO DIVERS ARTS AND MANUFACTURES;" in
which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said
James Cavanah Murphy, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said discovery, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within nine calendar months after the date of the

page_text: 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 proviso, I the said
James Cavanah Murphy, do hereby declare that my said discovery of the art
and method of designing, making, and forming mosaics and ornaments in the
Arabian style and manner is fully described and exemplified in the following
writing and the Drawings thereunto appended:-
First, as to the mosaics. I make a drawing or pattern with the greatest
possible accuracy, composed of divers geometrical figures, such, for example, as
the first 17 Figures hereto annexed; but my other Figure or Figures will
answer the same purpose. I make an exact copy of said drawing or
pattern, and pass a knife or other sharp instrument along all the lines thereof,
and separate the whole into as many pieces or compartments as there are
geometrical figures; these are the tosseræ: for every dissimilar piece I form, of
wood or metal, a separate mould, into which mould I cast the substance to be
formed for mosaics of porcelain. I mould the same composition, and use the
same process in varnishing, colouring, ornamenting, and baking the tessaræ, as
is commonly used in making porcelain or fine earthenware. For mosaics of
glass, I make the tessaroo very small, and mould many of them together by
forming in several pieces of metal several clusters or nests of moulds, into
which I cast melted glass of a fine or coarse quality, previously coloured in the
usual way. When the tessaræ are thus finished, I join them together, picce after
piece, as in the original Drawing, laying them in a strong cement, and filling
the joints with the same composition. With the said porcelain or glass mosaics
I imitate foilage, figures, or groups of figures, landscape, cattle, &c. &c., and
use them for ornamenting buildings, externally and internally; and for making
columns, pilastes, tables, chimney-picces, vases, jars, urns, and divers other
articles for floors, I gave the tesseroc more substance, and sometimes mould
them of the same composition as artificial stone is made of. Instead of clay or
glass for mosaics of skalioli, I form the moulds in the same way as for the
porcelain ones, make a paste of plaster of Paris and water in different vessels,
mixing in each vessel the colour required; this coloured composition I cast into
moulds and form the tessera; when they are dry I join them together, as above
mentioned, and, lastly, polish over the surface. These mosaics I apply to the
same ornamental purposes as the porcelain or glass mosaics. As to my method
of designing and making ornaments in the Arabian style and manner, this is
fully exemplified in the various examples appended to this Specification, con-
taining fifty-three different Drawings or Patterns applicable to the aforesaid
mosaics, or for stamping, printing, or painting upon manufactures of various

page_text: In witness whereof, I, the said James Cavanah Murphy, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Nineteenth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and ten.
JAMES CAVANAH MURPHY (L.S.).
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Nineteenth day of April, in the
year of our Lord 1810, the aforesaid James Cavanah Murphy, came before
our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to
the tenor of the Statutes made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Nineteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord 1810.