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:
“This is the patent age of new inventions
For killing bodies, and for saving souls,
All propagated with the best intentions.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“I was the horse and the rider,
and the leather I slapped to his rump
spanked my own behind.”
—May Swenson (1919–1995)