CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN ORNAMENTING METALLIC BEDSTEADS, AND WHICH SAID IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE ORNAMENTING OTHER METALLIC SURFACES
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Holland, Japanner, of Gibb Street, Deritend,
Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, and Ferdinand Potts, of the firm
of F. Potts & Co., Patent Tube Manufacturers, of Moore's Row, Deritend,
Birmingham, as aforesaid, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN ORNAMENTING METALLIC BEDSTEADS, AND WHICH SAID IMPROVEMENTS ARE
ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE ORNAMENTING OTHER METALLIC SURFACES."
Sealed the 16th November 1858, and dated the 7th July 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Holland and
Ferdinand Potts at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 7th July 1858.
We, JOHN HOLLAND, Japanner, of Gibb Street, Deritend, Birmingham, in
the County of Warwick, and FERDINAND POTTS, of the firm of F. Potts & Co.,
Patent Tube Manufacturers, of Moore's Row, Deritend, Birmingham, as
aforesaid, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention for "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN ORNAMENTING METALLIC BEDSTEADS, AND WHICH SAID IMPROVE-
MENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE ORNAMENTING OF OTHER METALLIC SURFACES,"
to be as follows (that is to say):-
"Our Invention relates, firstly, to a new process or processes of economically
ornamenting the pillars, rails, and other surfaces of metallic bedsteads by
producing the ornament from the bright metallic surface of the article or part
we may wish to decorate, and which will be understood from the, following

page_text: description, assuming that the pillars or other parts are made or partially
made of brass or other suitable bright metallic surface; over this we lay a
coating of paint of any desired colour, properly mixed for hardening by the
process of stoving, and which said coat may be all of one colour or variegated
either lengthway or transversely, the variation of colours being blended
together so as to be incorporated one in the other, or otherwise. Over this
body of paint (before hardening in the stove) we form a design painted on
with the pencil (or otherwise) with any suitable pigment, and which ornament
is to have a metallic appearance in the finished article; for this purpose we
have found lamp black ground and mixed with nut oil to answer well, but in
some instances, instead of pencilling on the design we purpose printing it on
paper or other material by any of the usual modes of printing, whether by
block, plate, or stone, and instead of using common printing or lithographic
ink, we purpose using the lamp black and nut oil, as before described, or
other suitable mixture. A design thus produced we transfer to the surface
of the bed pillar or post, as before described, and the effect of the lamp black
and oil will be to soften and destroy the ground on which it is placed, so that
after being applied for some little time the lamp black and nut oil or other
suitable compound forming the design, whether produced by pencilling or
transferred from paper, may be washed off, bringing with it the painted
ground on which it has been placed, thus leaving the design in this stage
composed of the bright metallic surface on which the work was first com-
menced, producing an effect identically the same as if the design had been
produced by silvering or gilding, which would have been expensive both in
the material and mode of application. The bed pillar or the part so
ornamented may be further finished according to the taste and capacity of the
artist employed upon it in the way of tinting up certain parts and applying
shadows to others, so as to produce relief and finish. The design in this state
we secure by a coating of suitable varnish submitted to very great heat, in &
japanner's stove, which will not only fix the coloured ground between the
ornament, but will also protect the exposed metal surface of the post or other
part from tarnishing or changing colour. This mode of ornamenting admits
of elaboration, as, for instance, if we desire the coloured ground to resemble
the appearance of being enamelled, we may repeat those processes, and mix
the colour or colours first employed with mastic and copal varnish, which
when dry and hard will have the desired effect; or we may first paint with
the pencil or transfer the design we require on to the metallic surface. We
propose ornamenting in any pigment or colouring matter that will not be
effected by water, but be removeable by turpentine, such as bitumen, and over

page_text: this and the whole surface of the article we desire to ornament, we lay a
coating of any desired colour or colours of paint blended together, as before
described, such colours being what may be called water colours, and not
affected by turpentine, over which when dry we apply a wash of turpentine,"
which will remove the colouring matter first applied, leaving the ornament in
beautiful bright outline to be finished, as before described, by touching up,
varnishing, stoving, &c.
Secondly, when bed posts or pillars be composed of iron, as also the rails,
and it not being desirable to exhibit a metallic ground, we produce by a new
process an apparently enamelled surface by treating the parts in the following
way: Say, we coat them with Venetian red or any suitable colour mixed
with a suitable varnish or varnishes, so as to dry quite dead, after this we
submit the post or other parts so treated to the stove in an ordinary way, a
few minutes stoving will do, when we give them a second coat, diluting the
colouring matter with more varnish, when we again stove them, and in a
third, fourth, or finishing process (according to the effect we wish to produce).
we use more varnish and less colour, by which means we obtain a bright, clear,
and smooth surface. This same process will allow of the colour being
variegated, as referred to in the description of our first improvement, say, by
fixing two or more brushes together each charged with colour of different tints,
and by drawing the post (or tube of which it may be composed) or other part
through or between such brushes in a straight or spiral form, or by moving
the brushes simultaneously along such post or rail in like manner the same
effect will be produced; thus a variegated and beautiful effect is obtained,
which after stoving will have all the appearance of a vitreous or enamelled.
surface perfectly hard and not liable to chip; this, of course, may be further
finished by the application of an additional design being pencilled in gold or.
colour; and further finished in the usual way.
Having described this mode or improvement in ornamenting as applied to
the finishing of the surfaces of metallic bedsteads, we purpose applying the
same to the ornamenting and finishing such other metallic surfaces to which
such mode of finish or ornament is applicable.
Lastly, our improvements in ornamenting metallic, bedsteads is applicable
only to the bright brass parts, and consists in the application to this purpose
of the old process of protecting certain parts forming the ornament and eating
away the other by the means of suitable acids; but which process has never
been applied to the ornamentation of metal bedsteads. In carrying this into
effect we prefer using a bitumenous stop reduced to a fluid, and applied by a
pencil or printed on the surface of paper and transferred in the ordinary way.

page_text: We prefer using the bitumenous stop for its tenacity, which after it is set will
admit of the design being etched up by the point of any suitable instrument,
and as a natural result, whenever the stop is removed by such process, the
metal will be exposed to the action of the acid, and which after being
sufficiently bitten or eaten away, the bitumenous stop may be readily removed
or washed off by means of common turpentine, as described in the first part
of our improvements, when the design will appear more or less in relief,
according to the strength of the acid used and the length of time exposed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Holland and Ferdinand Potts in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 7th January 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
HOLLAND, Japanner, of Gibb Street, Deritend, Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, and FERDINAND POTTS, of the firm of F. Potts & Co., Patent
Tube Manufacturers, of Moore's Row, Deritend, Birmingham, as aforesaid,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
John Holland and Ferdinand Potts, Her special license that we, the said
John Holland and Ferdinand Potts, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said John Holland and Ferdinand Potts, our
executors, administrators, or 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN ORNAMENTING
METALLIC BEDSTEADS, AND WHICH SAID IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE
ORNAMENTING OF OTHER METALLIC SURFACES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said John Holland and Ferdinand Potts, by an instru-
ment in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one
of us, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Ferdinand Potts, on behalf of myself and
the said John Holland, do hereby declare the nature of the 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):-
Our Invention relates, first, to a mode of ornamenting the description of
metallic surfaces herein-after named in such a way that they may have the
appearance of being ornamented with gold or silver leaf, a process well under-
stood and commonly practised, and obtained by pencilling the design with gold
size or other suitable fluid, and laying on the leaf metal, and after a sufficient
time for drying, brushing away the surplus leaf metal, thus obtaining a good
outline definement of the intended ornament, but this process is not only
tedious but expensive both as to time necessary in its production and in the
material used, and which our Invention is intended to supersede, yet producing
a similar or identical effect, but entirely avoiding the use or application of
leaf gold or other metal, and so simplifying the process that it may be done
with comparatively little skill and labour, and which consists in the process or
processes of ornamenting the pillars, rails, and other surfaces of metallic
bedsteads when the metal or metals so used in their construction are of a bright
surface such as brass or German silver, or iron coated with any bright metallic
deposit, by producing the ornament we wish by preserving the bright surface
for that purpose, and which will be better understood by the following detailed
description, and for this purpose we will assume that the bedstead pillar or
other part or parts intended to be ornamented are made of or coated with
brass, the surface intended to be ornamented being first prepared or finished by
dipping in suitable acid, a mode of cleaning well understood by the workers
of brass, and polished and burnished, if brightness of effect is desired.
On the surface thus prepared we lay a coating of paint of any desired colour,
such paint being properly ground and mixed, and applied in the usual way,
using such vehicles in their mixture as will readily harden by the process of
stoving, and which said paint may be of one uniform color, or various tints or
colours, applied in such a way that they may harmonize and blend one in the
other either in the lengthway of the pillar or around in parallel circles or of a
spiral or a double reverse spiral form. On this painted surface after drying
but before hardening or stoving, we form the design intended to be produced
by painting it with a pencil, a process well understood by artists accustomed
to ornament japanned goods, or by forming the ornament by printing on paper
or other suitable fabric, and transferring it to the surface intended to be orna-
mented, using for this purpose either for the pencilling or printing, any suitable
pigment, such as ground lamp black mixed with nut oil; this we have found to

page_text: answer well, whether applied. with the pencil or for printing the design
(whether such design be produced from wood blocks, metallic plates, or
stones such as are used in common lithographic printing; the design pencilled
on or produced by either of the means herein described, or transferred in the
ordinary way to the surface or surfaces intended to be ornamented,) will have
the effect of softening and destroying that part of the colored ground before
referred to immediately beneath it. In this condition we allow the pillar or
part that has been so treated to remain a little time, when the lamp black and
nut oil or other suitable pigment may be washed off by soap and water or
other suitable fluid, bringing with it the painted ground on which it had been
placed, thus leaving the design beautifully and keenly defined by perfectly
restoring the bright surface of the metal over which the work was first com-
menced, producing identically the same effect as if the bright metallic
ornament had been produced by the application of gold or silver leaf, which
is the common and expensive mode which has hitherto been used for pro-
ducing the class or description of ornament which our Invention is intended
to supersede, as such mode is not only rendered expensive by the material
with which it is produced, but requires a great deal of skilled labour in the
attainment of the desired effect, in order to economise the expensive material
with which it is produced. The bed pillar or other part thus ornamented
may be further finished, according to the taste or capacity of the artist
employed, by tinting, or etching up, or applying lights and shadows, so as to
make the general character of the ornament appear in relief, or by adding or
painting other ornaments such as flowers, wreathing and climbing around or
between the bright metallic ornaments or ornament first described. The
pillar or part thus treated we cover with a suitable coat of varnish, and
submit it to a stoving in a common japanner's stove, preferring to use rather
an excess of heat than otherwise, we mean by this a heat somewhat more
than is usually applied; say, from 120 to 150 degrees according to the nature
of the oils or varnishes with which the colouring matter of the ground has
been mixed, as also the coating of varnish last applied. This process will not
only fix the coloured ground and any other colours that might have been sub-
sequently added, but will also protect the bright metallic surface of which the
ornament has been mainly produced from tarnishing or losing its brilliancy from
changing colour. It will be evident to artists commonly employed in producing
such class of ornament that this mode is capable of some diversification, as,
for instance, the design required may be pencilled or transferred to the bright
metallic surface, (using for the purpose a pigment that will not be affected by
water, but be readily removed by turpentine, such as bitumen or sugar of lead, and

page_text: over this and the whole surface of the article or part we purpose ornamenting
we lay on with a proper brush a colored ground, plain or variegated, as
before described. The colours composing this must be ground in water, and
treated with great care, so as to render them clear and free of grit, mixing
them with water slightly diluted with any binding or gelatinous matter; colours
thus mixed are not affected by turpentine, therefore when dry a wash of this
fluid will remove the coloring matter or pigment first applied, as also that
applied over it, leaving the ornament in beautiful bright outline to be further
finished by touching up, varnishing, and stoving, as before described. Articles
thus treated have very much the appearance of enamelling, as the colouring
matter stands in a body surrounding the bright metal ornament identically as
enamell would do, and the beautiful glazed smooth surface produced by the
vitrifying process of enamelling is here very efficiently imitated by the coat or
coats of varnish last applied, and hardened by stoving, as before described.
The second portion of our Invention relates to a mode of treating the iron
parts or surfaces of metallic bedsteads that it may be desired to so treat, and
this portion of our Invention has for its object the imparting to the parts so
treated the general appearance of enamelling, finished with all the smooth and
delicate appearance that could be possibly obtained by the highest skill
employed in that art; as, for instance, the pillar of a bedstead may be composed
cither of a tube or of a solid bar of iron, with or without brass ornaments at
the top, bottom, or any intermediate part, but with which brass ornaments our
Juvention does not interfere, nor in no way refer to them further than by orna-
menting them, if desired, in like manner, as herein-before described in the
former part of our Invention. The surface of the iron part we purpose
treating in the following way :-We lay on a coat of Venetian red, or other
suitable colour, mixed with any suitable varnish, or other vehicle that will dry
dead; after drying we repeat this process until we have formed a smooth and
level surface; we now mix the colour we intend the surface to assume when
finished, which colour, for illustration, we will suppose to be white, treated in
the following way, we grind it in pure water, and sieve it until perfectly fine and
free from grit; we then expose it to the air until all moisture with which it is
incorporated is entirely evaporated, and has left it quite dry; we then mix it
with equal proportions of mastic and copal varnish to the proper consistency;
with the white colour, thus produced, we paint the pillar before described as
coated with Venetian red, and using the prepared white with a full tool, so as
to lay on a good body, which in the course of a few hours will dry dead; over
this we lay a second, a third, or a fourth coat, as may be desired, but observing
with each succeeding coat to use less of the white colouring matter and more

page_text: varnish, and also between each coat to place the pillar in a stove for thorough
drying and hardening. This treatment will be found to produce a clear and
semitransparent surface, smooth and uniform, and, in fact, presenting all the
appearance of fine-and-delicate enamelling; and will be found perfectly hard
and durable, and not liable to chip; on this imitative vitreous or enamel
surface, if further finish may be desired, any design may be added by pencilling
on gold or colour, protecting the same by a coat or coats of pure varnish, and
finished by stoving, as before described, and although I have described white.
as the colour used, nevertheless by employing the same means, the colour may
be varied, or various colours may be used and blended, as described in our
first process.
1
In the foregoing description, I have confined the application of our new
mode of ornamenting to bedsteads, whether made of iron or brass, or partly
iron and partly brass; nevertheless, this mode of treating or finishing
metallic surfaces is also applicable to the ornamenting and finishing such
surfaces worked or wrought up for any other purpose, whether the object of
the ornament be to obtain the same effect as if gold or silver leaf had been.
used, as described under the first head of our Invention, or the producing of.
an apparently general enamelled surface; as last described. In the last
part of our Provisional Specification, we described a mode of ornamenting the
bright brass parts of metallic bedsteads by stopping out certain portions by the
use of a material not affected by acid, and eating away the intermediate por-
tion by submerging the part intended to be ornamented in acid, a mode of
ornamenting which we believed only to have been used to a limited extent,
and never applied in the ornamenting of the pillars, rails, &c., of metallic
bedsteads; but now doubting the originality of such application, we decline
including it in this our Specification.
Having thus generally described the nature and character of our Invention.
for the ornamenting and finishing of metallic surfaces, whether such surfaces
appertain to metallic bedsteads or other articles or parts of articles to which it
may be applicable, we wish it understood that we do not purpose to limit
or confine ourselves to the exact details herein described and expressed, as they
may be varied or combined in their application without departing from the.
spirit or object of our Invention; but what we claim and wish to protect by
these our in part recited Letters Patent is,―
First, the preserving the bright surface of the article intended to be
ornamented, so as to make it conduce to the same effect that would be pro-
duced if gold or silver leaf had been used for that purpose, whereby much
economy of time and save of material is effected.

page_text: Secondly, in the mode of imitating enamel or vitreous surfaces, as applied
to the finishing or ornamenting the surface of iron, without confining ourselves
to the particular article to which such mode of ornamenting may be applied,
as described under the second head of our Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Ferdinand Potts, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
FERDINAND POTTS. (L.s.)
Witness,
ALFRED PERRY,
Clerk to J. S. Cockings, Patent Agent,
Birmingham.