Patent leather is a type of japanned leather that has been given a high gloss, shiny finish. The process was brought to the United States and improved by Newark-based inventor Seth Boyden in 1818, with commercial manufacture beginning September 20, 1819. Boyden's process, which he never patented, used a linseed oil–based lacquer coating. Modern patent leather usually has a plastic coating.
Famous quotes containing the words patent and/or leather:
“There is a patent office at the seat of government of the universe, whose managers are as much interested in the dispersion of seeds as anybody at Washington can be, and their operations are infinitely more extensive and regular.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I was the horse and the rider,
and the leather I slapped to his rump
spanked my own behind.”
—May Swenson (1919–1995)