A NEW AND IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF STRAW INTO HATS AND BONNETS AND OTHER ARTICLES, IN A MANNER AND TO. PRODUCE AN EFFECT NEVER BEFORE ATTEMPTED
Year: 1798

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PETER
BOILEAU, of Bruton Street, in the Parish of Saint George, Hanover Square,
and County of Middlesex, Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His-most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by-
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Third day of May, in the thirty-eighth year of His reign,
give and grant unto me, the said Peter Boileau, His especial licence that' I;
the said Peter Boileau, during the term of years therein mentioned, should
and lawfully might use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A NEW AND IMPROVED
MANUFACTURE OF STRAW INTO HATS AND BONNETS AND OTHER ARTICLES, IN A
MANNER AND TO. PRODUCE AN EFFECT NEVER BEFORE ATTEMPTED;" in which said:
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Peter
Boileau, by an instrument in writing, under my hand and seal, 'to cause a
particular description of, the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within one calendar month after the date of
the 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
Peter Boileau, do hereby declare that my said Invention: is described as
follows (that is to say):
Prepare the straw by separating it at each joint and taking off all the
outside skin or covering. One end must be cut pointed, that is, in the form of.

page_text: a pen, that it may be inserted into the hollow of another as it is worked. It
must be then immerged in water, so that the water may pass through its tube,
which takes off its brittleness and makes it work uniform, take the shape of
the block, and preserve its natural shape. The straw thus prepared, take a
mould of wood or other material, exactly of the form or shape of the crown of
the hat, bonnet, or other article you propose to make, and at the top of it,
from the center, draw or describe a small circle; from that circle draw or
describe perpendicular, serpentine, diagonal, or other lines or curves, as fancy
may dictate. As these lines or curves form the ribs or separations of the work
when compleat, at the top of each of these lines or curves, where they touch
the circle, fix a small nail or pin, to which tie or fasten a double wire, covered
or uncovered, which wire must be twice the length of the line or curve, and
tied or fastened to the nail or pin just in the middle of the wire, that there
may be two equal ends of wire to work. Begin working by introducing the
pipe or quill straw betwixt the two. wires, which wire must be drawn tight and
even with the line or curve; repeat the same at every line or curve round the
block, that is to say, to let one wire go over and the other under the straw at:
every line or curve; to the end of it join the straw by introducing the sharp,
end of another straw into the former just at the line or curve, and continue
thus to the bottom of the block.
To make the brim of the hat or bonnet, or to perform any flat work, take a
a sheet of thick pasteboard, and after drawing the circle (for a hat or bonnet).
formed by the bottom of the crown, and for other flat work at will, draw lines
or curves according to fancy, as before, and instead of nails or pins as
described, to be fixed into the block, make two small holes at the top of the
lines or curves on, the circle, through which pass the wire, and tie it in the.
same manner as to the nails or pins. When finished, the brim is to be sewed
or otherwise fixed to the crown, or it may be continued to be worked on the
pasteboard to the crown, so that the hat or bonnet shall be all in one piece
without separation. Fix or place in the space left by the circle at the top of
the crown a device of straw or any other ornament; and likewise round the.
edge of the brim, when the work will be compleat. It may be observed, that.
being worked with wire, a variety of form or shape may be obtained without
injury to the work.
In witness whereof, I, the said Peter Boileau, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this First day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven.
PETER BOILEAU. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the First day of June, in the
thirty-eighth year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Third, the
said Peter Boileau came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery,
and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the several Statutes made
in the Sixth year of the reign of the late King and Queen William and Mary
of England and so forth, and in the seventeenth, twenty-third, and thirty-seventh
years of the reign of His present Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Second day of June, in the year last above written.