MEANS OF PRODUCING FIGURED SURFACES, SUNK AND IN RELIEF, COLOURED OR NOT, ON LEATHER AND SKIN, AND OF PRINTING THEREFROM.
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henri Adrien Bonneville, of the British and
Foreign Patent Offices, 18, Rue de la Chaussée d'Antin, Paris,
France, and 6, Piccadilly, in the County of Middlesex, Patent
Agent, for the Invention of "MEANS OF PRODUCING FIGURED SURFACES,
SUNK AND IN RELIEF, COLOURED OR NOT, ON LEATHER AND SKIN, AND OF
PRINTING THEREFROM. -A communication from Edouard Charton,
residing at Rue Bayard, Paris, France.
"
-
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henri Adrien
Bonneville at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 13th November 1875.
I, HENRI ADRIEN BONNEVILLE, of the British and Foreign Patent
Offices, 18, Rue de la Chaussée d'Antin, Paris, France, and 6, Piccadilly,,
in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the.
nature of the said Invention for "MEANS OF PRODUCING FIGURED SURFACES,
SUNK AND IN RELIEF, COLOURED OR NOT, ON LEATHER AND SKIN, AND OF PRINTING.

page_text: THEREFROM," communicated to me by Edouard Charton, a person resident
Rue Bayard, Paris, France, aforesaid, to be as follows:—
-
The Invention relates to producing in relief on leather or skin
however slight its thickness, and particularly on fleshed sheep skins,
fleshed calfs leather and morocco designs made skilfully and not by
means of mechanical devices like those made up to the present day, and
to applying afterwards on the thus figured leather or skin transparent
colours in imitation of enamel. To obtain these reliefs a peculiarly
shaped graver previously heated is passed over and pressed upon the
leather or skin to produce the figuring according to the designs
previously sketched or created by the artist as he proceeds with his work,
then by means of the well known galvano-plastic processes moulds or
matrices are formed in which the designs thus skilfully obtained in
relief are reproduced sunk. These moulds or matrices are then applied
on the leathers or skins lying upon a plane surface and the whole
subjected to a powerful pressure by means of a press. The sunk designs
of the moulds are thus reproduced-in relief on the surface of these
leathers or skins.
The colours are applied if desired in the sunk designs and on the
reliefs. The said colours are formed with mineral or argillaceous colours
mixed with two-thirds of pulverized and baked alabaster, and the whole
is powdered with gum copal dissolved in boiling linseed oil.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Henri Adrien Bonneville in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 12th May 1876.
-
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRI
ADRIEN BONNEVILLE, of the British and Foreign Patent Offices, 18,
Rue de la Chaussée d'Antin, Paris, France, and 6, Piccadilly, in the
County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-six, in the
thirty-ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville,

page_text: Her special license, that I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Henri Adrien Bonneville, 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 "MEANS OF PRODUCING FIGURED SURFACES, SUNK
AND IN RELIEF, COLOURED OR NOT, ON LEATHER AND SKIN, AND OF PRINTING
THEREFROM," communicated to me by Edouard Charton, a person resident
Rue Bayard, Paris, France, aforesaid, upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, my executors or ad-
ministrators, 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 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 Henri Adrien Bonneville, 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 :—
The Invention relates to producing in relief on leather or skin however
slight its thickness, and particularly on fleshed sheep skins, fleshed calfs'
leather and morocco designs made skilfully and not by means of
mechanical devices like those made up to the present day, and to
applying afterwards on the thus figured leather or skin transparent
colours in imitation of enamel. To obtain these reliefs a peculiarly
shaped graver previously heated is passed over and pressed upon the
leather or skin to produce the figuring according to the designs
previously sketched or created by the artist as he proceeds with his
work, then by means of the well known galvano-plastic processes
moulds or matrices are formed in which the designs skilfully thus
obtained in relief are reproduced sunk. These moulds or matrices are
then applied on the leathers or skins lying upon a plane surface and the
whole subjected to a powerful pressure by means of a press. The sunk
designs of the moulds are thus reproduced in relief on the
these leathers or skins.
surface of

page_text: The colours are applied if desired in the sunk designs and on the
reliefs. The said colours are formed with mineral or argillaceous colours
mixed with two-thirds of pulverized and baked alabaster, and the whole
is powdered with gum copal dissolved in boiling linseed oil.
It may be seen by what precedes that the above described process is
altogether different from those hitherto used. The sunk figuring of
leather and skins has alone been effected by means of matrices and
counter matrices, the figuring in relief has never been effected, the
processes known and used for sunk figuring consisting of matrices, the
depths of which correspond to reliefs of counter matrices, and the reliefs
of the dies or matrices to depths of the said counter matrices. The
interposition and compression of the leather or skin between the said
matrices and counter matrices causes the reproduction on the said
leather or skin of designs sunk on one face and in relief on the other
face so that the two surfaces are no longer plane. These processes
cannot even be used with leathers or skins of a slight thickness because
of the rents which are produced in the tissue by the compression.
Another application of the above described process allows of obtaining
what the processes hitherto used have been unable to give, namely a
relief upon a ground skilfully obtained and having the aspect or
appearance of a valuable skin, such as morocco, snake's skin, and other
similar skins. The said application consists first in obtaining the designs
in relief on the leather or skin by the means and processes above
described, and then in cutting out and finishing the parts in relief. The
said parts thus cut out are glued on to a valuable skin, such as morocco
or snake's skin. The grounding is thus made with a real valuable skin
which has not undergone any alteration or change of shape because of
any pressure whatsoever, whilst the parts in relief have solely undergone
all the compressions required for forming depressions and swellings,
according to the design to be executed, and reproduced in relief by the
galvano-plastic processes in an unlimited number of patterns. By
pouring liquid plaster on the leather or skin sheets thus prepared moulds
are made reproducing not only the reliefs of the designs as has been
above stated but also the grounds representing exactly and without
alteration the natural surface of the valuable skin employed for this
ground. Matrices are thus made by means of the galvano-plastic
processes by the said moulds which reproduce a plane surfaces or a ground
having the look and appearance of a valuable skin and the designs sunk

page_text: therein, the said galvano-plastic plates or matrices being then applied
on the entire leathers or skins and the whole subjected to a powerful
pressure, the sunk parts are reproduced in relief, whilst the plane
surfaces are reproduced also plane but with the natural look of the
valuable skin which has been used for making the ground of the
galvano-plastic plate or matrice.
Having thus described the nature of the Invention, and the manner
of carrying it into effect, what I claim is,―
1. The method of obtaining artistic designs in relief on the leathers or
skins by means of gravers and not by machinery, and of transferring
them to ordinary or unprepared skins and leathers by means of matrices
obtained by the galvano-plastic process, as above described.
2. The application of transparent colours in imitation of enamel on
skins and leathers ornamented with skilful designs made directly or
obtained by galvano-plastic matrices, as described.
3. The obtaining on leathers and skins by means of galvano-plastic
plates of skilful designs in relief made with gravers and not by
machinery, and of grounds imitating the grain of the valuable skins and
leathers, as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, have
hereto set my hand and seal, this Ninth day of May, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
six.