TNPRAKSHIT STAYNING ORNAMENTING WOOD
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Andrew Fingar Brophy, of No. 42, Redcliffe
Road, West Brompton, in the County of Middlesex, for the
Invention of 66 TNPRAKSHIT STAYNING
ORNAMENTING WOOD"
Invention of "IMPROVE IN SMAINING AND ODWAMENTING WOOD.
Sealed the 9th August 1870, and dated the 11th June 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Andrew Fingar Brophy
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 11th June 1870.
I, ANDREW FINGAR BROPHY, of No. 42, Redcliffe Road, West
Brompton, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN STAINING AND ORNAMENTING
WOOD," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in staining and
ornamenting wood.
In order to stain wood in various colors according to any suitable
design, leaving, if desired, parts of the wood unstained, so as to obtain an
imitation of inlaid work, I proceed as follows:-I first apply a varnish or

page_text: solution which will fill the pores of the wood and exclude the staining
liquid to such parts of the surface as are to remain unstained, then when
the varnish or solution is dry I apply over the whole surface the
lightest stain I intend to use; this stain being dry, I again apply the
varnish or stopping coating with it to such parts of the surface as I
desire to retain of a color corresponding to the lightest stain; afterwards I
apply another stain, and so I proceed until the desired effect is obtained,
the last stain applied being usually black or a very dark shade.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Andrew Fingar Brophy in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 10th December 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ANDREW
FINGAR BROPHY, of No. 42, Redcliffe Road, West Brompton, in the
County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Andrew Fingar Brophy, Her special
licence that I, the said Andrew Fingar Brophy, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Andrew
Fingar Brophy, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN STAINING AND ORNAMENTING WOOD," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Andrew Fingar Brophy,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the

page_text: 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 Andrew Fingar Brophy, 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 thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in staining and orna-
menting wood. In order to stain wood in various colors according
to any suitable design, leaving, if desired, parts of the wood unstained,
so as to obtain an imitation of inlaid work, I proceed as follows:-I first
apply a varnish or solution which will fill the pores of the wood and
exclude the staining liquid to such parts of the surface as are to remain
unstained, then when the varnish or solution is dry I apply over the
whole surface the lightest stain I intend to use; this stain being dry
I again apply the varnish or stopping coating with it to such parts of
the surface as I desire to retain of a colour corresponding to the lightest
stain; afterwards I apply another stain, and so I proceed until the
desired effect is obtained, the last stain applied being usually black or a
very dark shade. The surface having been cleaned off, may, if desired,
be varnished or polished all over, or it may remain as it is left by the
last staining process.
In order that my said Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe more in detail the
manner in which I prefer to operate.
Any of the ordinary woods used by cabinet makers are suitable to be
ornamented according to my Invention. As the grain of the wood
remains visible in the finished work, more especially in the lighter parts
thereof, woods with little figure and consequently the least expensive are
most suitable, the wood selected having been fashioned to the shape re-
quired is, if the grain be very open, as it is in oak, for example, first rubbed
over with a cream-like mixture of plaster of Paris and spirits of wine; if
the grain be of medium closeness, as it is, for example, in sycamore
wood it is rubbed with spirits of wine alone; if the grain of the wood
be very close, as it is, for example, in walnut wood, this preparation is
unnecessary. The surface of the wood is powdered with chalk to facilitate
the manipulation of design, which is then traced or marked on the
surface of the wood in any convenient manner, and then so much of the
design as is to remain of the natural color of the wood is painted or

page_text: coated by the artist with white hard varnish or stain resisting solution;
gums dissolved in spirit are suitable, I use white hard varnish. It is
applied with a brush in such manner as to obtain a sound varnish
coating on the parts of the design where it is required. If on the first
application of the varnish a sound coating of the surface is not obtained
in consequence of the varnish sinking in, the operation must be
repeated.
The varnish being set, the lightest stain which is to be employed is next
laid on, and when this is dry such parts of the surface as are to remain
without further colour are in turn coated by the artist with varnish, over
this when it is quite set another darker stain is applied, and in this way
the work proceeds, the artist employing any number of stains requisite
to produce the effect he desires. These stains may or may not be laid
over the entire surface as may be most convenient or suitable to the
particular work in hand, but the stains will in all cases overlap the
one on the other, for in laying on the stains they are not to be
worked to an outline of the design, but the outlines are to be obtained
by the careful laying on of the solution or varnish which prevents the
stains at certain parts from sinking into the wood.
When all the stains necessary to the desired effect have been laid on
in regular graduation from the lightest to the darkest, the work
has to be cleaned off, that is to say, the upper films of the various
coatings of resisting varnish which will be discolored by the stains must
be removed with great care and by degrees or the wood beneath will be
soiled. This is a work of some delicacy, it requires the application of a
varnish solvent of such a nature as to be under complete control. I
employ as the solvent spirits of wine, and I temper its action by the
addition to it of French polish. At the commencement of the cleaning
operation a mixture containing but a very small proportion of spirit is
used, and by degrees the proportion is increased until the end of the
process and then spirits of wine alone is used.
The work may when it has been thoroughly cleaned be French
polished or varnished in the usual way. The solutions ordinarily used
for staining wood are applicable to the process above set forth.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention and the
manner of performing the same, I would have it understood that what
I claim as my improvements in staining and ornamenting wood is, the
application of successive partial coatings of a resisting solution or varnish

page_text: in accordance with the pattern or design it is desired to attain, and the
alternating such resisting coatings with coatings of staining solutions,
the one overlapping the other, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Andrew Tingar Brophy, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Ninth day of December, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.