GILDING. CHAP. xxvi. 



sumption of gold is much larger ; in one case 

 it was found to have been from twenty to thirty 

 ounces, and in some others from fifteen to twenty 

 ounces. It was impracticable to visit and col- 

 lect accurate returns from a number of trades- 

 men, amounting, in the two classes here treated 

 of, to more than one hundred and fifty in Bir- 

 mingham alone, besides some in London. It was 

 deemed sufficient to see some of the most respect- 

 able and intelligent, and from their accounts to 

 frame the most probable average of the whole. In 

 this way, and considering that, especially in Lon- 

 don, a large portion of silver goods is gilded, 

 either internally or wholly, we have been induced 

 to calculate the weekly consumption of gold in 

 the gilding of the description here noticed at six 

 hundred ounces weekly, or at thirty-one thousand 

 two hundred ounces annually. 



The plating of gold, which will be further 

 noticed when the subject of jewellery is under con- 

 sideration, is supposed, by those well acquainted 

 with the trade, to employ about fifty ounces of 

 fine gold weekly, or two thousand six hundred 

 ounces yearly. 



The use of gold in the potteries has very much 

 increased of late years, as must be obvious to any 

 person of observation who notices how profusely 

 it is applied to tea, to table, and to ornamental 

 china. From the great number of the manu- 



