IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING AND APPLYING SURFACES FOR PAINTING
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Pierre Poisson, of Paris, in the Empire of France,,
Artist, for the Invention. of."IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING AND APPLYING
SURFACES FOR PAINTING."
Sealed the 3rd July 1857, and dated the 6th February 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Pierre Poisson at the
Office of, the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
6th February 1857.
I, PIERRE POISSON, of Paris, in, the Empire of France, Artist, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING
AND APPLYING SURFACES FOR PAINTING," to be as follows:-
My Invention, relates to the preparation of surfaces on which to execute
paintings, being adapted to all kinds of wall or easel painting, and intended as
a substitute for canvas, metallic, and other surfaces used for painting, as also
for wainscoting and other painting on walls.
For this purpose I prepare a resisting sheet or basis, composed of a homo-
geneous thickness of paint, as follows:-I coat a linen cloth or canvas with a
first layer of an equal thickness of glue or size diluted in water; when it is
completely dry, I apply on it a layer of, uniform thickness of gum copal and
water, to which may be added white of egg, or albumine. When this second
coat is completely dry I apply on it a thickness of oil paint equal to forty or

page_text: fifty ordinary coats of paint. It is this sheet or thickness of paint alone which
when dry forms the surface or basis on which the artistic subject is to be
painted.
To separate this sheet or thickness of paint I gum all over its surface a
piece of muslin or permeable paper unsized; I then wet the first cloth with
water, which it imbibes, and may then be readily detached from the paint,
carrying with it the two layers of size and gum, leaving simply the coating of
paint gummed on the muslin or permeable paper, when it is fit for use.
painting or artistic work having been applied to this surface, I gum on it above
the painting another thin piece of muslin.
The
To apply this painted sheet on the wall, wainscot, cloth, or metallic or other
surface, I coat the wall or wainscot, &c. with oil paint, and on this apply
the painted sheet or surface, haying previously deprived it of the muslin
first applied by soaking in water. There remains then but to separate the
second muslin which covers the work, which is effected by applying water, as
before..
My improved sheets or surfaces, composed of from. one to fifty coats of
paint prepared as above described, may be gummed on paper, and printed
or ornamented by means of blocks, or other suitable means of. printing or
applying paint.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Pierre Poisson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
6th August 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PIERRE
Poisson, of Paris, in the Empire of France, Artist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of February, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors; give and grant unto me, the
said Pierre Poisson, Her special licence that I, the said Pierre Poisson, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said. Pierre
Poisson, 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 PREPARING AND

page_text: the painting win be subject.
Immediately the painting is applied to the foun-
dation on which it is to remain the remaining muslin may be removed from
the face, as before, by means of a wet sponge, which terminates the work.
My Improved Painting Surface applied to Xicochromy, or Painting by
Impressing or Printing in Oil Colours.
The various attempts which have been made with regard to xicochromy, or
printing or impressing in oil paint or colours, have hitherto failed, in conse-
quence of the difficulty presented by the elasticity of the fabric used, which
always presents an obstacle on account of the difficulty in getting the different
colours to register, which never has been so exact as required, and upon which
exactitude the whole success of this kind of work depends.
The product or painting surface above described, which I apply as a ground
or support on paper instead of muslin, obviates the difficulty of obtaining 'an
exact registering of the different colours applied, and renders xicochromy 'a
process easy of attainment, as the above-described painted surface or founda-
tion is capable of being worked off as many as fifteen times with different
colours without being put out of form, and when applied on cloth according
to my method becomes substantially an oil painting,' and fulfilling all the con-
ditions of ordinary paintings (the result desired in xicochromy), by employing
paper only as a support for the film of paint for the purpose of submit-
ting it to the impression. The operation once terminated, the paper is
removed in the same manner as the muslin used in the operations above
described. This film of oil paint being applied on cloth or on walls, by the
aid of a separate coating of paint, which forms one body with the film,
this in reality constitutes an oil painting, properly so called, since there no
longer exists when the work is terminated any intermediate substance between
the paint and the surface on which it is applied.
It will be seen by the preceeding description that my Invention presents
the following advantages:-
First, exterior or interior wall painting will no longer suffer from the altera-
tions that time and the variations of temperature render it subject to, and
which always show themselves in cracks, crevices, blisters, &c., as the cause of
these accurrences is the difficulty of rendering the bottom or ground layers
homogeneous with the upper layers, which is the base of all paintings. The
process herein-before described constitutes a groundwork of paint of a single
coat or layer, and is consequently homogeneous.
By this process the most minute or the most extensive works may be under-
taken without disturbing in any way the place to be decorated, as the work

page_text: may be done in the artist's studio, a few hours only being necessary for its
application.
Secondly, xicochromy, or painting by printing or impressing the colours,
which since, its first Invention has made little or no progress, but in which by
the application of my process all obstacles or difficulties are removed, and it may
be applied to all kinds of ordinary paintings, and also for monumental paint-
ings. The basis or groundwork of paint used in this process may be infinitely
varied; it may be made of wax, rendered waterproof or fit for embossing,
stamping, impressing, &c.
Having described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in which
it is performed, I desire it to be understood that what I claim as my Inven-
tion is,―
First, painting or ornamenting walls or other surfaces, effected on a film or
skin of paint prepared. as described, and afterwards applied by gumming or
cementing to the surface to be ornamented:
Secondly, the application of the film or skin of paint to the art of producing
painting by impression, herein denominated "xicochromy."
In witness whereof, I, the said Pierre Poisson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Third day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
POISSON