CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PAINTING, GRAINING, OR DECORATING WITH OIL AND OTHER COLORS
Year: 1843

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
PAGE, of Cambridge, in the County of Cambridge, Painter, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Tenth day of June, (One thousand eight hundred and forty-
three), in the sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Henry Page, my executors, administrators, and
assigns Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the
said Henry Page, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and such others as
I, the said Henry Page, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during
the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland called England, Her Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
PAINTING, GRAINING, OR DECORATING WITH OIL AND OTHER COLORS;" in which said
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Henry Page,
to particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, and to cause the same to be enrolled in Her said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by
the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Henry Page, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, to be fully described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof (that is to say):-
1
My Invention relates to certain improvements in the mode of painting,
graining, or decorating with oil and other colours, and consists in a novel and
peculiar process, by which that branch of painting, called "graining" is
rendered more simple, less expensive, and still more decorative than by
the means hitherto employed for that purpose. And in order to explain
my said Invention as completely as possible, I will proceed to describe
the process, and the manner in which the same is to be conducted, together
with the means to be employed during the same; the combined effect of
which (hereafter fully explained) form the principal feature of my said
Invention. The said process, when conducted in the manner following, will
be found to answer extremely well. I first cover the surface required to
be decorated (whether such surface be of wood, plaister, floor cloth, paper,
stone, or of any other material) with a coating of oil paint of any colour in the
ordinary manner. When this is perfectly dry, I then take some distemper
colour, that is, colour ground in water, and mixed with a sufficient quantity of
beer to cause it to bind with or adhere to the oil paint ground previously laid
on. I would here remark, that the distemper colour to be employed
(which may be of any tint) should be darker than the colour of the oil paint
ground above mentioned; care should also be taken that the distemper colour
be not opaque, as that would defeat the object in view (which is that it have
a pellucid appearance). And I proceed to cover the entire surface of oil paint
in any convenient manner with the above-mentioned distemper colour, softening
it off with a brush in the ordinary way; and while this surface is quite wet, I
variegate or decorate the said surface by sprinkling or dotting the same,
according to my taste or that of the artist employed,) with brushes, sponges, or
other suitable materials or instruments capable of holding spirits; the said
instruments or materials being previously dipped into naptha, spirits of nitre,
spirits of wine, or spirits of turpentine, which last spirit I prefer, but do not
confine myself to its exclusive use, as any spirit that will not injure the oil
paint ground before mentioned, or prevent the varnish (afterwards applied)
from drying, would answer the purpose; by these means surfaces may be
beautifully figured and decorated with any kind of device or pattern which
taste may suggest, the effect being produced as follows:-The spirit which is
applied to the surface of the distemper colour whilst in a wet state, having no
affinity for the same, displaces it, thereby causing it to assume various beautiful

page_text: forms, which when complete, according to my judgment or that of the artist
employed, are fixed, that is to say, prevented from altering their forms by the
application thereto of (an instrument known in the trade as) a brasier or sala-
mander, until the surface be perfectly dry. The process being now completed,
the work may be varnished in the ordinary way.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I am perfectly
aware of distemper colour having been employed for graining, as also brushes
and sponges for figuring the same; I do not, therefore, claim as of my Inven-
tion, or the exclusive use of any of the separate colouring matters or materials
lastly above-mentioned, except so far as the same may be employed for the
purposes of my said Invention, which I hereby declare to consist in, and I
claim for the said purposes, the exclusive use of brushes, sponges, or other
suitable materials or instruments when dipped into a spirit or spirits that
will not injure the oil-paint ground or prevent the varnish from drying. And
I further claim the application of such spirit or spirits to a surface or surfaces
of distemper colouring matter whilst the said surface or surfaces is or are in a
wet state, as herein-before particularly described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Page, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-three.