IMPROVEMENTS IN THE DECORATION OF FURNITURE, PANELS, AND OTHER SURFACES
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Eliza Cunnington, of Devizes, in the County
of Wilts, Spinster, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS. IN THE
Şealed the 22d September 1858, and dated the 12th April 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Eliza Cunnington
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with her Petition,
on the 12th April 1853.
I, ELIZA CUNNINGTON, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE DECORATION OF FURNITURE, PANELS,
AND OTHER SURFACES," to be as follows:
This Invention refers to a mode of decorating articles of various
kinds, and parts of buildings, by the employment therefor of certain
natural productions (instead of copies or imitations of such productions)
which are to be covered with glass, talc, or other translucent material.
The natural productions which I prefer to use are those which possess
á filamentous character, as mosses, ferns, or other cryptogamus plants,

page_text: grasses, and such like vegetable matters. These I propose to press
and dry, and afterwards to dye or color, or gild or silver, according to
the tone of decoration required to be produced. When so treated, I
arrange these vegetable matters on a colored ground, either in groups
(in imitation, for example, of forest scenery) or in the form of wreaths
or borders, or otherwise, as taste may dictate; introducing, for the sake
of variety, flowers and leaves of plants, similarly treated with color,
or with a metal coating. Over the decoration thus produced I apply
a plate of glass or tale, or a sheet of gelatine or other analogous
substance, according to the nature of the article decorated; and, if
thought desirable, I paint, or otherwise produce upon the under surface
of the covering surface, border lines or other devices, to heighten the
effect of the decoration. In some cases, I propose to employ the finer
portions of feathers, suitably prepared, and to arrange them either alone
or in combination with the vegetable filaments, leaves, and flowers to
form ornamental devices for the enrichment of surfaces, after the
manner and having the appearance of inlaying.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Eliza Cunnington, in the Great Seal Patent
Office, on the 12th October 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
ELIZA CUNNINGTON, of Devizes, in the County of Wilts, Spinster, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of April, 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 Eliza Cunnington, Her special
licence that I, the said Eliza Cunnington, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Eliza Cunnington, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,

page_text: 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 " IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE DECORATION OF FURNITURE, PANELS, AND OTHER SUR-
FACES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Eliza
Cunnington, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Eliza Cunnington, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement (that is to say):
My Invention refers to a mode of decorating articles of various
kinds, and also parts of buildings, by the employment therefor of certain
natural productions, (instead of copies or imitations of such productions,)
which, when properly prepared, are to be covered with glass, talc, or
other translucent material. The natural productions which I prefer to
use are those which possess a filamentous character, as mosses, ferns,
or other cryptogamous plants, grasses, and such like vegetable matters.
These plants I take fresh gathered, and spread them out on sheets of
paper or other suitable substance, arranging the leaves, stems, and fila-
ments of the several specimens so that, after being submitted to pressure,
they will present a graceful and artistic appearance. I then press and
dry them in the manner usually adopted by collectors of plants, and
afterwards dye or colour them, or coat them with gold or silver leaf, or
other metallic tissue, according to the tone of decoration required to be
produced.
When so treated, I arrange these specimens of natural productions on
a plain or coloured ground, either in groups (in imitation, for example,
of forest scenery), or in the form of wreaths or borders, or otherwise, as
taste may dictate; introducing, for the sake of variety, flowers and leaves

page_text: of plants, similarly treated with color, or with a metallic coating, over the
decoration thus produced. I apply.a plate of glass.or talc, or a sheet of
pure gelatine or other analogous substance, according to the nature of the
article decorated; and, if thought desirable, I paint or otherwise produce
upon the under surface of the material forming the transparent covering
border lines, or other devices, to heighten the effect of the decoration.
In some cases I propose to employ the finer portions of feathers, after
being bleached or coloured, or coated with some métallic tissue, and to
arrange them either alone or in combination with the vegetable
filaments, leaves and flowers, to form ornamental devices for the enrich-
ment of surfaces, after the manner and having the appearance of
inlaying. In selecting the plants for producing the ornamental devices
above indicated, I prefer those which, when pressed and dried, present
to the eye an inappreciable thickness, for in that case little or no shadow
is cast therefrom by a side light, and consequently a closer imitation of
inlaid work is obtained. For the same reason I ordinarily prefer to
employ an opaque ground to receive the prepared specimens. .
In some cases, however, I may find it desirable, as when the speci-
mens are or have the appearance of being aquatic plants, to employ
silvered glass as the ground whereby a reflection of the under side of
the plants will be obtained.
The principal articles which I propose to decorate by the application
of my Invention, are table tops, fire screens, work boxes, and-door and
other panels, but besides these other appropriate applications will readily
suggest themselves to furniture decorators and ornamentists.
Having now described my Invention of improvements in the decora-
tion of furniture, panels, and other surfaces, I would remark that I am
aware that plants have heretofore been coated with metals by the
electrotype and other processes, and such specimens have doubtless
been used as articles of decoration; I do not therefore, make any claim
to the application for the purposes of ornamentation of vegetable pro-
ducts, preserved in the round, or retaining their natural sectional figure;
but what I claim under the above in part recited Letters Patent is, the
application of natural productions, (of the kinds above indicated, when

page_text: treated as above described, to the decoration of surfaces covered with a
transparant material
In witness whereof, I, the said Eliza Cunnington, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
In witness whereof, I, the said Eliza Cunnington, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
ELIZA CUNNINGTON. (L.S.)
Witness, JOHN BRITTON, No. 17, Burton Street,
in the Parish of St. Pancrass,
in the County of Middlesex.