 The process was invented by A. F. Brophy and patented in England in 1871.In a paper read before a meeting of the Royal Institute of British Architects three years after xylotechnigraphy was patented, G. T. Robinson described it as "in principle exceedingly simple.... To ceilings, doors, dados in our private houses, to partitions and fittings of our banks and commercial offices, this process is, I conceive, exceedingly applicable, and to our larger and less movable pieces of furniture it is not misapplied, though I confess to a lurking dislike to it in those lesser articles to which true inlay, by reason of their smaller process, seems more aesthetically appropriate."