A NOVEL APPLICATION OF GLASS TO DECORATIVE OR ORNAMENTAL PURPOSES
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Defries at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 4th
September 1869.
I, HENRY DEFRIES, of the Firm of Jonas Defries and Sons, of Hounds-
ditch, in the City of London, Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "A NOVEL APPLICATION OF GLASS TO DECORATIVE
OR ORNAMENTAL PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
Various articles of furniture, musical and other boxes, clocks, and a
variety of objects have been ornamented by inlaying them with different
woods, with metals, mother-of-pearl, ivory, marbles of various colors,
and many other substances, also by incrusting them with precious
stones. Some of these decorations are very costly as regards material,
others from the skilful workmanship and the time necessary to their
execution. In lieu of such ornamentations, and for many articles
proper
to which most of them are more or less inapplicable, I propose to adopt
the use of plain or colored glass. The pieces of glass may be of any
size and shape, round, oblong, square, diamond, or other, but will always
be cut and polished so as to give prismatic colors. They may be set open
or transparent or solid, that is to say, so that light may shine through or

page_text: only simply be reflected from them. For example, in ornamenting the
back of a chair I may either make a recess or recesses and set a prism or
prisms therein, fixing it or them upon the wood (with or without a foil)
by means of any suitable adhesive material or otherwise; or I may make
a hole through the chair back, and set the prism in this opening with a
rim of any suitable metal, securing it as a diamond is set in a ring; or I
may incrust prisms or pieces of glass having cut facets upon the surface
of the chair or other article, so that the pieces of glass project like
studs.
For all articles usually placed with the back towards the light the
effect of an open setting will be very beautiful.
Supposing prisms or pieces of glass cut with facets to be set trans-
parent around the frame of a toilet glass, placed with its back to a
window, in the daytime the light will shine through the prisms or other
pieces of cut glass, and at night when the chamber is lit up it will
scintillate from their surfaces as from gems. A similar effect will be
obtained by setting them transparent in objects usually standing before
looking glasses, such, for example, as skeleton clocks.
The advantages of inlaying or incrusting with glass prisms or pieces
of cut and polished glass are very considerable. In the first place the
material is cheap, the amount of cutting given to it being entirely
regulated by the value of the article to which it is to be applied; again,
an intricate design will not greatly increase the cost of the ornamentation,
each piece being moulded of the required shape, and any variety of
color obtained without difficulty; further, the inlaying or setting of
the glass in wood, metal, or other material, may be effected by any
ordinary workman.
I am aware that many articles have been ornamented with pieces of
colored glass set or inlaid in their surfaces, but these have not been cut
so as to give prismatic colors, and the object of my Invention is to apply
this form of decoration to articles of furniture, and generally to all
articles which have been hitherto inlaid with other material.