AN IMPROVEMENT IN LINE ENGRAVING, AND IN PRODUCING IMPRESSIONS THEREPROM
Year: 1841

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HENRY LE KEUX, of No. 37, Southampton Street, Pentonville, in the County.
of Middlesex, Engraver, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-third day of June, in the fifth year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said John
Henry le Keux, Her especial license, that I, the said John Henry le Keux,
my executors, administrators, and assigns; or such others as I, the said John
Henry le Keux, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term
of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use; exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Inven-
tion of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN LINE ENGRAVING, AND IN PRODUCING IMPRESSIONS
THEREPROM;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging
me, the said John Henry le Keux, by an instrument in writing under niy
hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause.
the same to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery, within

page_text: two calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Henry le Keux, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention to
consist in a process of engraving, in the style commonly called line engraving,
on two steel, copper, or other metal plates any subject or picture required, a
portion of such subject being engraved on one, and the remainder on the
other of such plates, in such manner that, when printed one upon the other on
the same surface, the combination of the two impressions shall produce the
representation required, and in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said John Henry le Keux, do hereby describe the manner in which my said
Invention is to be performed by the following statement thereof, reference
being had to the four sheets of impressions from engraved plates annexed, that
is to say:-
I first procure two steel, copper, or other metal plates, prepared for
engraving, on one of which plates I put a tracing or rolling off of any given
subject, and then I proceed to etch thereon all the necessary outline and dark
shadows of such subject, and afterwards I finish such portions of the subject so
etched by the usual process of line engraving, as shown by Sheet No. 1, and
this plate I call the subject plate.. I then take the other plate and place
thereon a tracing or transfer from the first mentioned plate when engraved, as
aforesaid, and then I rule a tint of lines all over the subject with a machine or
otherwise, as is well known to line engravers. I then by the usual process of
line engraving stop out the lights, and by biting in, as it is called, pro-
duce any of the under-tints or shadows that the subject may require, and this
plate I then call, the ground plate, as shown by Sheet No. 2. And I may
further add if necessary on this ground plate any etching or graving to deepen
the shadows or burnishing, to brighten the lights if necessary. And the two
plates being then marked with register lines may be printed one upon the im-
pression given by the other, so as to produce the effect required. When the
engraving is completed on the two plates, as aforesaid, I take a piece of paper
or other substance, and print an impression off from one plate by the usual
method of, steel and copper-plate-printing; but before removing the paper or
other substance I mark it to correspond with the register lines, and then place
the same paper or other substance with the impression from the one plate on
the other plate by means of the register lines, and by printing from the ground
.

page_text: .
plate on the surface of the impression taken from the subject plate the process
is completed, and I produce the effect required.
Now, whereas, the Sheet impression No. 2 annexed, it will be seen is printed
in black lowered with white in the usual manner, and the Sheet impression
No. 1 is also printed in black, so that the Sheet impression No. 3, where the
two are united, also represents the subject as printed in black; but whereas I
reserve myself the option of using any. color or colors on each plate, and
different or the same colors on both plates, as shown by the Sheet impression
No. 4 annexed, where the sky on the ground plate has been colored blue,
and the remainder of the subject stone color, while the subject plate has been
colored brown, thus exhibiting three colors on the impression, I also
reserve to myself the option of printing from either of the two plates first; and
it may be as well here to observe, that in the three specimens or sheets of
impressions hereto annexed, I produced No. 3 by printing from the ground
plate first, and then I registered the same paper or other substance upon
the subject plate, and the combination of the two impressions produced the
finished print No. 3.
Now, whereas, I claim as my Invention the ruling of a tint of lines and
then producing the required under-tints, lights, or deep shadows on a separate
plate from that on which I engrave the general subject, and then taking
impressions from the two plates so engraved, as aforesaid (both being engraved
in the style called line engraving), in manner aforesaid, whereby an entirely
novel effect is produced with a considerable economy of labor; and such my
Invention being to the best of my knowledge and belief entirely new and never
before used within that part of Her said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland called England, Her said Dominion of Wales, and Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby declare this to be my Specification of
the same, and that I do verily believe this my said Specification doth comply
in all respects fully and without reserve or disguise with the proviso in the
said herein-before in part recited Letters Patent contained, wherefore I hereby
claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my seal,
this Twenty-first day of August, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and forty-one.
JOHN HENRY (L.S.) LE KEUX.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-first day of August,
in the fifth year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the said John
Henry le Keux came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and
acknowledged the instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein con-
tained and specified; in form above written. And also the instrument afore-
said was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-fifth
year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Twenty-first day of August, One thousand eight hundred and
forty-one.