A NEW METHOD OF MAKING AND MANUFACTURING COAT AND WAISTCOAT BUTTONS OF BLACK OR ANY OTHER COLOUR OR MIXTURE OF COLOURS, BOTH PLAIN AND FIGURED, OUT OF OR FROM BONE AND IVORY
Year: 1787

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
RABONE, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Button Maker, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Third, by His Royal
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Fifteenth day of January now last past, in the twenty-seventh
year of His reign, did give and grant unto me, the said Joseph Rabone,
His special licence that I, the said Joseph Rabone, during the term of
years therein expressed, should and might use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"A NEW METHOD OF MAKING AND MANUFACTURING COAT AND WAISTCOAT BUTTONS
OF BLACK OR ANY OTHER COLOUR OR MIXTURE OF COLOURS, BOTH PLAIN AND FIGURED,
OUT OF OR FROM BONE AND IVORY;" in which said Letters Patent there is con-
tained a proviso obliging me, the said Joseph Rabone, 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
Joseph Rabone, do hereby declare that my said New Invention of Making
and Manufacturing Coat and Waistcoat Buttons of Black or of any other
Colour or Mixture of Colours, both Plain and Figured, out of or from Bone
and Ivory, is described in manner following (that is to say):-

page_text: I take the leg or other bones of oxen, cows, and other animals, or elephants
teeth, namely, ivory, and saw them into flat pieces of proper sizes for different
kinds of coat and breast buttons, out of which with a double lathe I form,
cut, or turn the said buttons; I then shank them with metal, tin, brass, copper,
or iron shanks by turning or counterturning with a hook tool in a common
lathe the under side of the buttons in such a manner that the shanks, being
turned concave at the ends and made thin at the edges, will, by being
hammered or otherwise properly forced or pressed into the buttons, become
perfectly fast or secure. Before or when the buttons are shanked I put them
in a stove, and by moderate heat warp them as much as possible, without
which being done or their being otherwise warped by heat to destroy the
fluid they contain, it is not possible to make them good and perfect, as they
will become deformed and blister in hardening the varnish. I then with the
side of a grinding stone in a common lathe make them flat, or I turn them'
flat, concave, convex, or in any other form with common turning tools in a
common lathe by means of a wood spring chock; this being done, they are
several times varnished over with oil, spirits, or other varnish; I mean the
varnishes which are used in manufacturing of japan goods either of iron or
paper; and after each time of their being varnished they must be gradually
hardened in a stove or otherwise by heat. The varnish may be black, blue,
green, or any other colour or mixture of colours according to fancy, and they
may be polished with or without a lathe by first making the surface smooth
by rubbing them with a woollen cloth dipped in red casting sand and water,
and afterwards by varnishing and drying them. When they quite dry they are
polished in a lathe with woollen cloth dipped in rotten stone and water, and
are then polished by the hand with butter or sweet oil. These buttons, when
finished as plain ones, may be variously figured and ornamented ad infinitum;
some are wrought in figures by scoring engines which are now in daily use by
myself and many other gilt and plated button makers, with cording, knotting,
matting, or other tools, or I ornament them by partially taking off the polish
in straight or variously directed stripes, or in other figures, which I do by
putting the buttons into a plate or case of metal, iron, or steel made of a size
exactly to receive them, and pierced according to the pattern, and which is
afterwards applied to a brush with pummice stone and water fixed in a
common lathe; in others I take off the japan in different parts of the buttons
by turning, drilling, hubbing, or otherwise working them, in order that the
whiteness of the bone or ivory may appear upon their surface, which affords
an agreeable contrast to the different coloured buttons. Some of the buttons I
varnish with a mixture of colours, so that when finished they appear mottled;

page_text: others I paint with one or various colours, or inlay them with gold, silver,
pearl, gilt, plated steel, metal, or silvered ornaments; others I ornament
by gilding, and decorate others with stones of different kinds and colours
such as are made use of in jewellery goods. Instead of shanking some of these
buttons I drill, bore, or otherwise make holes in the centres of them, and
warp, grind, and varnish them in the same manner as I do those which are
shanked. I then ornament them with any and every kind of ornament, to
which may be soldered, rivetted, or otherwise affixed long shanks of metal,
tin, brass, copper, and iron which are straight and unopened, and putting
them through the centres of the buttons, I with a round tool, or otherwise,
open, form, and fasten them..
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Rabone, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixth day of February, in the twenty-seventh year
of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, by the grace
God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the
Faith, and so forth, and in the year of our Lord One thousand seven