The patentee's manual; containing a list of patents granted by the United States for the encouragement of arts & sciences, alphabetically arranged, from 1790 to 1830. [To be continued by supplements.] Also, the laws of Congress for granting patents; with a digest of all decisions which have taken place in the Courts of the United States respecting patents.

Elliot, W. [P.]

About this Item

Washington, DC, S. A. Elliot, 1830. 8vo (22.6 x 13.6 cm). Title page, xviii, 118, 137-53 pp. Contemporary (original?) blind boards; spine with handwritten label. = A very rare publication, compiled and written by William Parker Elliot (1807-1853), at that time a draughtsman at the Washington Patent Office, and a patent agent. His brother, Seth Alfred Elliot (1808-1873) was a printer in the same town, and publisher of this work. Later, he fancied himself an architect, and managed to design and build - under the guidance of a genuine architect, Robert Mills (1781-1855) - the new (1836) Patent Office Building in DC after the first one burned down with the loss of all original patents, including those described in this work (see King, pp. 177-180). The main work, concluding with an index, contains the patent laws of the United States with decisions on patents, and An alphabetical list of all patents and patentees on record at the Patent Office, apparently up to June 1827, as it is followed by a Supplement to the list of patents continued. From June, 1827, to April, 1828 (pp. 111-118), and a Supplement to the list of patents continued. From April 1828, to January, 1830 [misnumbered pp. 137-153 (recte 119-135)]. In the right margin of the title page, the following is written in an old hand: "Congress has before it a bill [to] amend the laws relative to Patents; it raises the fee from 30 dollars to 70 dollars. JG 9th Ap. 1830." Boards a bit smudged; lower margin of the title page irregular; scattered foxing throughout. Very rare. OCLC reports only a few copies: Union College, Schenectady, NY; Columbia University, NY; Trinity College, Hartford, CT; Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh, PA; and Staatzbibiothek, Berlin. Also, in the University of Minnesota Library. None available in the book trade. No recent auction records. J. King (2014), George Hadfield: Architect of the Federal City; Sabin, 22247.

Seller Inventory # 72313

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The patentee's manual; containing a list of patents granted by the United States for the encouragement of arts & sciences, alphabetically arranged, from 1790 to 1830. [To be continued by supplements.] Also, the laws of Congress for granting patents; with a digest of all decisions which have taken place in the Courts of the United States respecting patents.
• Binding: Hardcover