IMPROVEMENTS IN EASELS AND IN APPLIANCES FOR FACILITATING THE PRACTICE OF OUT-OF-DOOR PAINTING
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Beverley Fenby at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 1st July 1876.
JOSEPH BEVERLEY FENBY, of Yardley, in the County of Worcester, Civil
Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN EASELS AND IN APPLIANCES FOR FACILITATING THE
PRACTICE OF OUT-OF-DOOR PAINTING."
My Invention consists, first, in constructing and arranging the parts of easels in
the following manner:-I make the easel of three uprights or legs constituting a
tripod, the general configuration of which is that of an ordinary sketching easel.
The three legs or uprights are hinged to a fourth strip or bar which is situated in
the same plane as the two front legs or uprights. I will herein-after call this the
middle bar. The back leg is hinged to the top of the middle bar, and the two front
legs are jointed by screw or other pins to the back of the said middle bar a little
below its top. I make the three legs or supports of the easel of light strips or
bars of wood having flanges, the said strips having in cross section nearly the figure
of the letter T.
The middle bar described has a length about two-thirds that of the legs, and has
a central slot or opening in it extending nearly its whole length. Two metallic
stays jointed to the front legs of the easel are connected to a clamping screw situated
in the slot of the middle bar. By raising the said clamping screw in the said slot,
and fixing it at a higher or lower point in the said slot, the front legs may be fixed
either in their most expanded position or in any less expanded position. When the
easel is folded up the said jointed stays together with the middle bar lie in the
recess between the flanges of the closed front legs. In the slot of the said middle
bar a second clamping screw works carrying a light metallic support or ledge on
which the canvas or drawing board is supported. A second sliding metallic support
or ledge in an inverted position slides in the slot of the middle bar above the first-
named one.
At the back of the first-named sliding support is a sliding hook connected to
the said support by a spring. A leather strap is connected by one end to the said
hook. In fixing the canvas or drawing board upon the easel the lower sliding
support or ledge is fixed at the required height in the middle bar by its clamping
screw. The upper inverted support or ledge is raised in the slot in the middle
bar, and the canvas or drawing board is placed on the lower support or ledge.
The upper inverted ledge is now brought down on to the upper edge of the canvas
or drawing board, and the strap connected to the spring hook of the lower
support is tightened and hooked to the back of the said upper support by the
Price 2d.1

page_text: action of the spring, the canvas or drawing board is grasped tightly between the
two supports.
When folded up the easel is very compact, having the general figure of a bar of
wood. A leather handle attached to one of the legs or supports affords a conve-
nient means for carrying the easel.
In order to make the easel of greater or less height as well as to accommodate it
to uneven ground, each leg may be made in two parts, one part sliding on the
other and fixed in its place by a clamping screw. A metallic eye. may be fixed
at the top of the back leg and on its inner side, to which a string with a weight may
be attached in order to give firmness to the easel.
My improvements in appliances for facilitating the practice of out-of-door paint-
ing consist of the following appliances for enabling artists and amateurs to carry
two wet or recently executed oil sketches face to face without risk of injury and
securely protected from insects and dust:-I attach angle pieces of metal to each
corner of each stretched canvas, the edges of the angle pieces being flush with the
front and back of the sketcher frame, and I take light laths of a width somewhat
greater than the combined thickness of the two stretcher frames. The ends of the
laths are reduced in breadth, the reduced ends being of a width equal to the spacé to
be left between the canvasses. These laths are placed on the edge of one canvas
their shoulders engaging, under the ends of the angle pieces. They thus form a
shallow rim all round the canvas, on which the other canvas may be placed faco
downwards and the whole secured by cord or clamps. Or the laths may be dis-
pensed with and small packing pieces may be placed between the metallic angle
pieces to keep the faces of the canvasses the required distance apart.