A NEW OR IMPROVED METHOD OF PAINTING AND DECORATING GLASS, ENAMELLED CHINA, AND POTTERY WARES OF EVERY DESCRIPTION BY SPECIALLY PREPARED PENCILS
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Thomas Hughes, of the Firm of Hughes and
Son, Patent Agents, 123, Chancery Lane, London, for the Invention of
"
A NEW OR IMPROVED METHOD OF PAINTING AND DECORATING GLASS,
ENAMELLED CHINA, AND POTTERY WARES OF EVERY DESCRIPTION BY
SPECIALLY PREPARED PENCILS." A communication from abroad by Max
Rösler, of Schlierbach, near Wächtersbach, Germany.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Thomas Hughes at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 16th November 1877.
EDWARD THOMAS HUGHES, of the Firm of Hughes and Son, Patent Agents,
123, Chancery Lane, London. "A NEW OR IMPROVED METHOD OF PAINTING
AND DECORATING GLASS. ENAMELED CHINA, AND POTTERY WARES OF EVERY
DESCRIPTION BY SPECIALLY PREPARED PENCILS." A communication from abroad
by Max Rösler, of Schlierbach, near Wächtersbach, Germany.
This Invention relates to a new or improved method of painting and decorating
glass, enamelled wares, china and pottery wares of every description by means of
vary-coloured pencils manufactured from the well-known colouring materials which
as hitherto, employed in the decoration of glass, enameled ware, china and pottery
wares, from the common vary-coloured patterns to the well-finished works of art
are well known. All these colours are in the trade in pulverized state, but more
recently, the glaze colours for more artistic painting are sold ready prepared with oil
in tubes the same as colours for oil painting.
All decorations by the colours mentioned-have hitherto been effected by more or
less mechanical methods of transferring copper or steel-plate printing, lithography,
enamel-photography, templet work, caoutchuc or sponge-stampiglio, or by free-
hand painting by brush and pen, the colouring so applied being fixed by more or
less heat or baking by fire. With this hand painting the colours are always mixed
..

page_text: and prepared with water or oil of various kinds and then put on the ware; or the
whole surface to be decorated is covered by oil mixtures and the colours stained on
it as powder. The management of painting with colours that are to be baked had
always to be studied laboriously even by such artists that were well acquainted
with common painting. A direct application of dry colours for the production of
drawings or free-hand paintings without any preliminary preparation of the painting
material has been unknown until now.
Every one who knows the methods of decoration hitherto employed in detail will
admit that the idea to fabricate pencils and to work with them is entirely new for
work of this description, and that there is no objection against their application[
with all the colours mentioned, and that the use of such pencils offers chances for
the production of new and original decorations, as well as in the better and cheaper
reproduction of existing patterns.
In carrying out my Invention all fireproof oxyds, and the colour-giving combi-
nations of the same, all painting materials for glass, enamel, china ware, stoneware,
and majolica, that are known under various denominations and in various shades are
suitable for its manufacture. The colours being first ground and washed as finely as
possible the dried colour is formed into a thick dough by means of water or oil and
some pasty substances. At present I use a paste of two parts of gum arabic and
one part of Marseille soap, but other pasty substances may be used, as found most
suitable, only avoiding such quantities that would make the pencils hard and
brittle. I take one part of the paste to thirty parts of the paint, mix the two well
in a dry state on a glass pane and form the mixture with water or some volatile oil
into a stiff uniform paste. This paste is spread over the pallet in a cake of from 3
to 5 millimeter thick, and as soon as it has sufficiently hardened it is cut into strips,
which are either rolled single into round pencils, or they are left to harden as they
are, cut, in irregular polygonal forms on a dry and even surface. The pencils so
prepared may now be used for drawing. A simple method of preserving them from
breakage is to surround them with plaster of Paris, when with care they may be
easily handled and pointed like ordinary blacklead pencils. In manufactureing them
on a large scale I might use an envelope of wood in the same manner as blacklead
pencils are now made..
:.
The colours concerned have not always the same appearance with which they
come later out of the fire, but a mark put on the envelopes will make any error in
this direction impossible, and it will always be possible to produce all the shades of
a single colour with one and the same pencil by making the lines stronger or weaker,
a method not applicable with lithography.
The pencils to be distinguished and kept separated, according to the character of
the painting and the nature of the material to be worked upon.
The work done with these pencils will be of various descriptions, and specially
applicable for the decoration of finer fancy ware and ornamental objects. Shaded
drawing work on unglazed and only once-baked surfaces may be executed with
them at once by any one who understands drawing.
The pencils would slide on soft and glazed surfaces; it is therefore necessary to
give to them a certain degree of roughness by etching, grinding, or sand-jet, or 'to
give them a coating on which it is possible to draw; for instance, if a drawing is
to be made on a glaze with colours that have to undergo "great fire," the surface to
be painted is stained with the same glaze ground finely by means of turpentine, oil,
or copäiva balm. The surface stained uniformly is smoked off at the kiln, which
gives a good grounding for paint. In the decoration by muffle colours the same
simple method is followed. The surface is either stained with a neutral glaze or
with a sand colour if the painting is to be on coloured ground.
With uniformly coloured decorations the work is always done as common pencil
drawing, with coloured objects in the manner of coloured crayon drawing.
The management of pencils is easier and more rapid than the handling of a brush;
and that new effects may be produced by pencil work; for instance, the painting
underneath the glaze of stoneware or the perfecting of majolika painting. It is

page_text: extremely difficult to produce accurate drawings by pencil or brush on the under
ground of unglazed ware. Work of artistic value of this description is therefore
extremely costly, and it has not yet been possible to give a greater extent to the
manufactory and use of pieces of this description. This will be otherwise with my
improved pencils, with which the drawing on twice-burnt ware is extremely easy
and safe. I may also add that on the most unperishable of all decorations of
pottery ware the painting underneath the glaze will be effected by the pencils. From
an artist's point of view it will be easy to compose and execute characteristic
ornaments of vases for use and show, for the walls of rooms, and the facades of
houses, without resorting to a clumsy, troublesome, and now obsolete method and
appliances.
Nearly every educated person who can execute a pencil drawing will be now in
a position to practice one of the oldest of arts. A great many working people to
whom this art has hitherto been inaccessible, on account of the special training
required, will find a paying and useful employment in the use of my pencils, the
introduction of which means the introduction of crayon drawing into the art of
keramographics, and in the painting on enamelled and glass ware, thereby giving a
new impulse to the keramic art.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Edward Thomas Hughes in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
16th May 1878.
EDWARD THOMAS HUGHES, of the Firm of Hughes and Son, Patent Agents,
123, Chancery Lane, London. "A NEW OR IMPROVED METHOD OF PRINTING
AND DECORATING GLASS, ENAMELLED CHINA, AND POTTERY WARES OF EVERY
DESCRIPTION BY SPECIALLY PREPARED PENCILS." A communication from abroad
by Max Rösler, of Schlierback, near Wächtersback, Germany.
This Invention relates to a new or improved method of painting and decorating
glass, enamelled wares, china, and pottery wares of every description by means of
vary-colored pencils, specially manufactured from the well-known coloring
materials, which as hitherto employed in the decoration of glass, enamelled ware,
china, and pottery wares, from the common vary-colored patterns to the well
finished works of art are well known.
The following is a short description of the methods hitherto employed, with the
exception of such as relate to coloring of the mass, the production of uniformly
colored ground by staining and dusting, or other material of grounding and the
working of relievós.
Glazed as well as unglazed ware may be decorated by painting. In the painting
of unglazed pottery (such as siderolith, terra cotta, imitations of antique vases)
the paint is always put on the body, whether it is baked with the degree of heat
necessary for the hardening of the body, or only with the degree of heat sufficient

page_text: to bake or vitrify the glaze alone in separate muffles. For this purpose the paint
nicely ground and mixed either with water or oil is put on by a brush or pen.
33
The painting of glazed potteryware (porcelain, stoneware, faience, majolika) is
either done by "great fire" or small fire paint, that is by baking or enamelling
colors. Colors for "great fire or "baking" are those materials which require for
their finish the same temperature as the baking of the glaze with which they are
used. With very soft enamel, such as some majolikas have, the baking of the paint
may as well be done in muffles. These baking colors may be put on or under the
glaze, in the case of transparent glaze; but with opaque glaze they must always
be put on or over it, in which case they penetrate the glaze during the baking
process.
There is no difference between the glaze fully heated to a fluid state or still
unmolten or unbaked on the body of the ware, and the painting done into the
glaze in a pulverized state, a method usual with certain old majolikas and faiences.
The enamel colors are always put on the enamel and generally burnt in muffles,
but sometimes at places of the kiln where the fire is weaker. In the painting of
glass the paint is always put on the surface, and the heat in glazing is only increased
until the surface begins to soften; but nevertheless some prepared paints have
with this degree of heat a coloring effect that enters the surface of the glass.
The glazing is always done either in muffles or muffle kilns. In enamel the
painting is either done as on any other glassy or glazed surface, or the paint is put
on an opaque grounding of enamel.
The variety of baking colors is restricted, the harder the glaze the higher the
temperature necessary for the baking process. With felspar chinaware the possible
scale of variation is only cobalt blue, chrome green, and black. The painting in.
glaze enamel and glass colors commands many more varieties and more extended
technical means. All these colors are in the trade in pulverized state, but more
recently the glaze colors for more artistic painting are sold ready prepared with oil
in tubes, the same as colors for oil painting.
All decorations by the colors mentioned have hitherto been effected by more or
less mechanical methods of transferring copper or steel plate printing, lithography,
enamel photography, templet work, caoutchuc or sponge, stampiglio, or by free hand
painting by brush and pen, the coloring so applied being fixed by more or less heat
or baking by fire. With this hand painting the colors are always mixed and
prepared with water or oil of various kinds and then put on the ware; or the
whole surface to be decorated is covered by oil mixtures, and the colors stained on
it as powder and the management of painting with colors that are to be baked had
always to be studied laboriously even by such artists that were well acquainted
with common painting. A direct application of dry colors for the production of
drawings or free hand paintings without any preliminary preparation of the painting
material has been unknown until now.
Every one who knows the methods of decoration hitherto employed in detail
will admit that the idea to fabricate pencils and to work with them is entirely new
for work of this description, and that there is no objection against their application
with all the colors mentioned, and that the use of such pencils offers chances for the
production of new and original decorations as well as in the better and cheaper
reproduction of existing patterns.
In carrying out my Invention all fireproof oxydes and the color giving com-
binations of the same, all painting materials for glass, enamel, chinaware, stoneware,
and majolika, that are known under various denominations and in various shades are
suitable for its manufacture. The colors being first ground and washed as finely
as possible the dryed color is formed into a thick dough by means of water or oil
and some pasty substances. At present I use a paste of two parts of gum arabic,
and one part of Marseille soap, but other pasty substances may be used as found
most suitable, only avoiding such quantities that would make the pencils hard and
brittle. I take one part of the paste to thirty parts of the paint, mix the two well
in a dry state on a glass pane, and form the mixture with water or some volatile oil

page_text: into a stiff uniform paste. This paste is spread over the pallet in a cake of from
3 to 5 millimeter thick, and as soon as it is sufficiently hardened it is cut in strips
which are either rolled single into round pencils, or they are left to harden as they
are cut in irregular polygonal forms on a dry and even surface. The pencils so
prepared may now be used for drawing. A simple method of preserving them from
breakage is to surround them with plaster of Paris, when with care they may be
easily handled and pointed like ordinary blacklead pencils. In manufacturing them
on a large scale an envelope of wood may be used in the same manner as blacklead
pencils are now made.
The colors concerned have not always the same appearance with which they come
later out of the fire, but a mark put on, the envelopes will make any error in this
direction impossible, and it will always be possible to produce all the shades of a
single color with one and the same pencil by making the lines stronger or weaker, a
method not applicable with lithography.
The pencils to be distinguished and kept separated, according to the character of
the painting and the nature of the material to be worked upon.
The work done with these pencils will be of various descriptions, and specially
applicable for the decoration of finer fancy ware and ornamental objects. Shaded
drawing work on unglazed and only once baked surfaces may be executed with
them at once by anyone who understands drawing.
The pencils would slide on soft and glazed surfaces; it is therefore necessary to
give to them a certain degree of roughness by etching, grinding, or sand-jet, or to
give them a coating on which it is possible to draw; for instance if a drawing is
to be made on a glaze with colors that have to undergo "great heat" the surface to
be painted or stained with the same glaze ground finely by means of turpentine oil
or copaïva balm. The surface stained uniformly is smoked off at the kiln which
gives a good grounding for paint. In the decoration by muffle colors the same
simple method is followed. The surface is either stained with a neutral glaze or
with a sand color if the painting is to be on colored ground.
With uniformly colored decorations the work is always done as common pencil
drawing with colored objects in the manner of colored crayon drawing.
The management of pencils is easier and more rapid than the handling of a brush,
and that new effects may be produced by pencil work; for instance, the painting
underneath the glaze of stoneware, the perfecting of majolika painting. It is
extremely difficult to produce accurate drawings by pencil or brush on the under
ground of unglazed ware. Work of artistic value of this description is therefore
extremely costly, and it has not yet been possible to give a greater extent to the
manufactory and use of pieces of this description. This will be otherwise with my
improved pencils with which the drawing on twice-burnt ware is extremely easy
and safe. I may also add that the most imperishable of all decorations of pottery-
ware, the painting underneath the glaze, will be effected by the pencils from an
artist's point of view, it will be easy to compose and execute characteristic
ornaments of vases for use and show, for the walls of rooms and the facades of
houses, without resorting to a clumsy, troublesome, and now obsolete method and
appliances.
Nearly every educated person who can execute a pencil drawing will be now in
a position to practice one of the oldest of arts. A great many working people to
whom this art has hitherto been inaccessible on account of the special training
required will find a paying and useful employment in the use of my pencils, the
introduction of which means the introduction of crayon drawing into the art of
keramographics, and in the painting on enamelled and glassware, thereby giving a
new impulse to the keramic art.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the said Invention
and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried into effect, I would
observe in conclusion that what I consider novel and original, and therefore claim
as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent

page_text: is, the application and use of colored pencils manufactured from the well-known
coloring or other suitable material, substantially as and for the purposes herein-
before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Thomas Hughes, have hereunto set my
-
hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.
E. T. HUGHES. (L.S.)