The Artist's Assistant, In the Study and Practice of Mechanical Sciences: Calculated for the Improvement of Genius. Illustrated with Copper-Plates (Birmingham, [ca. 1785])

234 THE ARTIST'S ASSISTANT.

Of G I L D I N G.

rjHHE principal kinds of gilding are thofe called
oil gilding, burnifh gilding, and japanner's gild-
ing, or gilding with gold fize ; thefe may be promif-
cuoudy ufed on grounds either of wood, metal, or
any other firm and rigid body ; but paper and lea-
ther reouire a treatment, in iome cafes, peculiar
to themiel ves.

The firft attention, in mod kinds of gilding, is
the choice of leaf gold, which fhould be pure, and
of the colour accommodated to the purpofe, or tafle,
of the work. Purity is renuifite in all cafes, for if
the gold be allayed with iilver, it will be of too
pale and green a hue for any application ; and. if it
contain much copper, it will, in time, turn to a
ftronger green: the bed method, however, of judg-
ing of the colour of leaf gold, with nicety, is by
keeping a fpecimen of fuch as is perfect, with which
any frefh parcel may be compared.

There is, befidcs the true leaf gold, another kind
in ufe, called Dutch gold, which is copper gilt,
and beaten into leaves like the genuine ; it is much
cheaper, and has, when good, greatly the effeft of
the true, at the time of its being laid on the ground ;
but, with any acce's of moifture, it lofes its colour,
and turns green in fpots, and, indeed, in all cafes,
its beauty is foon impaired, unlefswell fecured with
lacquer or varnifh.

Or the inilruments that are commonly ufed in
gilding :—The firft neceffaiy inftrument is a cufhion,
for receiving the leaves of gold from the paper, in

order