IMPROVEMENTS IN SHIRTS
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Anne Emilie Malteste, of Paris, (France,) Milliner,
for the Invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN SHIRTS.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Anne Emilie Malteste nt
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with her Petition, on the
14th January 1856.
I, ANNE EMILIE MALTESTE, of Paris, (France,) Milliner, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SHIRTS" to be as
follows:-
These improvements relate more particularly to gentlemens' shirts, and
consist in having a shirt without skirts, forming a sort of waistcoat, which may
consequently be put over another shirt, and being furnished at the waist with
an elastic band, or. any other suitable mode of fixing, the same is kept over the
chest as if it was an entire shirt. The same may be with or without sleeves,
and with or without a collar. Another arrangement consists in having the
breast part of the shirt cut in an open form, in order to offer more coolness
in hot seasons, and a greater transparency to the breast part of a dress shirt,
when this latter is put over this under shirt.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Anne Emilie Maltesto in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
14th July 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ANNE
EMILIE MALTESTE, of Paris, (France,) Milliner, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Anne Emilie Malteste, Her special licence that I, the said Anne Emilie
Malteste, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
suid Anne Emilie Malteste, 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN SHIRTS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I. the said
Anne Emilie Malteste my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the samo was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in
the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months, next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Anne Emilie Malteste, 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:-
My improvements relate to gentlemens' shirts, and consist, firstly, in a sort
of half shirt or front, which I call waistcoat shirt; and, secondly, in an
improved under shirt. The same are represented in the annexed Drawing, in
which Fig. 1 and 2 relate to my waistcoat shirt, or improved front; and Fig. 3
shows my improved under shirt. My waistcoat shirt, or improved front, of
which Fig. 1 shows the fore part, and Fig. 2 the back, is a shirt without skirt
or flaps, and at the same time resembles a waistcoat, being provided at the
back with tape, elastic bands, or any other suitable tightening arrangement,
which may serve particularly for drawing together round the waist. a is a
tongue with a button hole, for fixing the front to a button of the trousers.
The great advantage my waistcoat shirts offer to the ordinary fronts is, that they

page_text: fit much better to the chest than these latter; they may be put over any other
shirt; but as generally the fronts of my waistcoat shirts are made of a finer
material than ordinary shirts, and mostly are more ornamental, I have in-
vented an under shirt (represented in Fig. 3), which, leaving a large opening
on the chest, gives a greater transparency, and makes the embroideries or other
ornaments of the waistcoat shirt that has been put over this improved under
shirt more visible. As for my waistcoat shirts they may be with or without
collars, and with or without sleeves; my improved under shirt has no collar,
and is with or without sleeves; the inspection of Fig. 8 will sufficiently
render its form comprehensible.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, I declare that I do not
intend to confine myself to any particular material of which my waistcoat shirt
or my under shirt may be made, or to the precise shape shown in the Draw-
ings; but what I claim as my Invention consists in the general construction of
the same, in the manner as has becu described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Anne Emilie Malteste, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Ninth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
0 Witness,
A. G. BRADE.
ANNE EMILIE MALTESTE. (L.S.)