George Washington as an Inventor and Promoter of the Useful Arts. An Address Delivered at Mount Vernon, April 10, 1891, by J.M. Toner, M.D.

TONER, Joseph Meredith [George Washington].

$2,500.00

Item Number: 133402

Washington, D.C.: Press of Gedney & Roberts Co, 1891.

First separate edition of Turner’s address delivered at Mount Vernon on the occasion of the visit of the officers and members of the Patent Centennial Celebration. Octavo, bound in three quarter morocco over marbled boards by Stikeman & Co. with elaborate gilt tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, morocco spine label lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt. In near fine condition. Remnant of the original front wrapper bound in. Stamps of the Freedom Foundation Library. Bookplate to the pastedown. An exquisitely bound example of this rare work.

The first patent statute passed by the federal government of the United States, The Patent Act of 1790, was enacted on April 10, 1790, about one year after the constitution was ratified and a new government was organized. The law was concise, defining the subject matter of a U.S. patent as "any useful art, manufacture, engine, machine, or device, or any improvement there on not before known or used." It granted the applicant the "sole and exclusive right and liberty of making, constructing, using and vending to others to be used" of his invention. The Patent Centennial Celebration as held on April 10, 1890 at Mount Vernon before the tomb of George Washington.