A NEW PORTABLE TABLE, WITH DOUBLE OR SINGLE FOLDING FLAPS AND FOLDING FEET, AND ALSO A NEW PORTABLE CHAIR, SO CONTRIVED AS TO ANSWER ALL THE PURPOSES OF THE COMMON TABLES AND CHAIRS, AND AT THE SAME TIME TO LAY IN THE COMPASS OF A SMALL Box
Year: 1771

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, ANTHONY GEORGE
ECKHARDT, of London, Gentleman, sends greeting.
WHEREAS the said Anthony George Eckhardt did, by his peticon, humbly
represent unto His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, that he
had by long study and pains found out and invented "A NEW PORTABLE TABLE,
WITH DOUBLE OR SINGLE FOLDING FLAPS AND FOLDING FEET, AND ALSO A NEW
PORTABLE CHAIR, SO CONTRIVED AS TO ANSWER ALL THE PURPOSES OF THE COMMON TABLES
AND CHAIRS, AND AT THE SAME TIME TO LAY IN THE COMPASS OF A SMALL Box," which
would be of the greatest use to His said Majesty's navy and army, and to all
seafaring people, as well as to His Maty's subjects in general; and thereby
prayed His Majesty to grant unto him His Letters Patent for the sole making
and vending the said new Portable Table and Chair: And His said Majesty being
pleased to condescend to his request, did, by His Royal Letters Patent, bear-
ing date at Westminster, the Twenty-ninth day of July, in the eleventh year
of His reign, give and grant unto the said Anthony George Eckhardt, his
executors, admors, and assigns, especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that he, the said Anthony George Eckhardt, his executors, adiñors,
and assigns, and every of them, by himself and themselves, or by his and their
deputy or deputies, servants, or agents, or such others as he, the said Anthony
George Eckhardt, his executors, adñors, or assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the

page_text: term of fourteen years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend his said Invention within that said part of His said Majesty's
Kingdom of Great Britain called England, His Dominion of Wales, and Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in His Colonies and Plantations abroad, in
such manner as to him, the said Anthony George Eckhardt, his executors,
adiors, and assigns, or any of them, should in their discretions seem meet;.
and that he, the said Anthony George Eckhardt, his executors, adiñors, and
assigns, should and lawfully might have and enjoy the whole profit, benefit,
commodity, and advantage from time to time coming, growing, accrowing, and
arising by reason of the said Invention, for and during the term of years
therein mentioned, to have, hold, exercise, and enjoy the said lycence,
powers, privileges, & advantages therein-before granted, or mentioned to be
granted, unto the said Anthony George Eckhardt, his exors, adiñors, and assigns,
for and during and unto the full end and term of fourteen years from the date
of the said Letters Patent next and immediately ensuing, and fully to be
compleat and ended according to the Statute in such case made and provided;
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that if the said Anthony
George Eckhardt should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of
his said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under his hand and seal, and cause the same to be
inrolled in the High Court of Chancery within four calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said
Letters Patent, and all libertics and advantages whatsoever thereby granted,
should utterly cease, determine, and become void, anything therein-before
contained to the contrary thereof in anywise notwithstanding, as in and by the
said Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, more fully and at large
may appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that he, the said Anthony George Eckhardt, in pur-
suance of the said recited provisoc, doth by this instrument in writing, under
his hand and seal, particularly describe and ascertain the nature of his said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, in manner
and form following, that is to say :-
First, form a square folding frame of a table in the manner as expressed in
the Drawing hereunto annexed, marked with the letter A, Figures 1, 2, 3, & 4,
such as is commonly used or applyed for card tables, with this difference, that
as the frame is to fold in such manner as to bring the opposite leggs, No. 5, 6,
7, and 8, as shewn in the said Drawing annexed, quite close together, it will
be necessary to have two joints in the direct middle of each side of the frame,
as described by the Figures 9, 9, and 10, 10, and one joint at the insertion

page_text: of cach of the four leggs, pointed out in the Drawing by the Figure 11; at the
outer extremities of this frame are hung two flapps marked 12, 12, upon their
hinges, so contrived that they may hang down at right angles to the frame when
it is first opened, and be capable of turning in such manner as to bring them to
fold over and meet in the center of the frame which is their support, and to which
they are fastened by two snap locks; when this frame is finished in the manner
above described it will constitute a compleat usefull table which may be made of
any form or proportion; and in order to make it take up as little room as the
solid contents of the materials alone will admit of, the legs are also contrived to
fold in two by means of a hinge fixed to cach, as expressed in the Drawing C,
No 13, so applyed as that each of the legs may turn inwards when folded up,
as shewn in the several Drawings by the Figures No. 14; and to render the legs
more steady and give them greater strength when the table is opened and in
use, a bolt is provided to each, as expressed by Figure 15, in the Drawings A,
B, and D, which, when the table is folded up, is contained in the upper joint,
and when opened falls by its own weight across the joint to give the necessary
strength. One advantage peculiar to this construction, added to the small
space it is capable of being folded up in, is the facility of changing the sides
of the flaps at pleasure, the one of which being of any beautifull wood, and
the other covered with green cloth, it will then occasionally serve either as a
tea table or as a card or writing table. The stools or chairs are in every respect
similar in their construction with the tables, with this difference, that the seat
is contrived with a double folding joint, as in the Drawing C, Figure 16, in one
flap only, whereas the table consists of two flapps; and as a further improve-
ment, little drawers or boxes may be made to fold up therewith to hold pens,
irk, paper, and small instruments of any sort.
In witness whereof, the said Anthony George Eckhardt hath hereunto set
his hand and scal, this Twenty-eighth day of November, in the twelfth
year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, by the
grace of God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender
of the Faith, &c., and in the year of our Lord One thousand seven
hundred and seventy-one.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-ninth day of November,
in the year last above mentioned, the aforesaid Anthony George Eckhardt came
before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Speci-
fication of his Invention aforesaid, and all and every therein contained and
specified, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was
stampt according to the tenor of the Statute made in the sixth year of
the reign of the late King and Queen William & Mary of England, & só
forth.
Inrolled the same Twenty-ninth day of November. in the year above said.

page_text: The frame with its two flaps in the air standing upon three Legs the
fourth Leg figure 14, turned inwards to shew the manner of its folding.
The Table laying on the Ground with one flap up to shew the manner of
the folding of the Legs together with the Joints in the frame figure 9,9,10,10.
The frame of a Stool or Chair with the Seat in the air standing like-
wise on three Legs as in the frame of the Table.
The Steel laying on the Ground in the same manner as the Table.