2JS GOLD-BEATERS. CHAP. XXVI. 



saved as clippings, in reducing the leaves to the 

 proper form and extent. In beating the gold, it 

 is by repeated operations with the hammer brought 

 to the required thin state; but it is in large 

 leaves, of an irregular shape, and these, when 

 reduced to the prescribed form and size, ne- 

 cessarily leave much clippings, all of which are 

 carefully preserved for future application, and 

 contribute some addition, perhaps ten per cent., 

 to the gains of the manufacturer. 



The account here given of the gold-beater's 

 operations applies more especially to the trade as 

 carried on at Birmingham, where the chief leaf 

 gold is of the thinnest kind, and in which, con- 

 sequently, the wages bear the highest proportion 

 to the value of the gold. In London, though 

 some little leaf gold is made, chiefly for the use 

 of painters, as low as three pounds ten shillings 

 the thousand books, the greater part is of a thick- 

 ness which makes it worth from four pounds to 

 four pounds ten shillings, and from that price 

 upwards, to as high as nine pounds. It thus 

 appears that the proportion of the wages to the 

 gold varies excessively ; in the thinnest leaves 

 amounting to more than two-fifths, and in the 

 thickest, which requires less hammering, to less 

 than one-tenth. 



This disquisition may appear too minute, and 

 may, perhaps, be tiresome to the reader, but it 



