GILDING. 
manner ; it will immediately adhere on be- 
ing pressed by the cotton ball, and before 
the size is become perfectly dry, those parts 
which are intended to be the most brilliant 
are to be carefully burnished with agate or 
dog’s-tooth. In order to save the labour of 
burnishing, it is a common, but bad prac- 
tice, slightly to burnish the brilliant parts, 
and to deaden the rest by drawing a brush 
over them dipped in size : the required con- 
trast between the polished and the unpo- 
lished gold is indeed thus obtained ; but the 
general effect is much inferior to that pro- 
duced in the regular way, and the smallest 
drop of water falling on the sized part occa- 
sions a stain. This kind of gilding can only 
be applied on in-door work, as rain, and 
even a considerable degree of dampness, 
will occasion the gold to peel off. When 
dirty, it may be cleaned with a soft brush, 
and hot spirit of wine, or oil of turpentine. 
It is chiefly used on picture frames, mould- 
ings, and stucco. 
Letters written on vellum or paper are 
gilded in three ways : in the first, a little 
size is mixed with the ink, and the letters 
are written as usual ; when they are dry, a 
slight degree of stickiness is produced by 
breathing on them, upon which the gold leaf 
is immediately applied, and by a little pres- 
sure may be made to adhere with sufficient 
firmness. In the second method, some 
white-lead or chalk is ground up with strong 
size, and the letters are made with this by 
means of a brush : when the mixture is al- 
most dry, the gold leaf may be laid on, and 
afterwards burnished. The last method is, 
to mix up some gold powder with size, and 
make the letters of this by means of a 
brush. The edges of the leaves of books 
are. gilded, while in the binder’s press, by 
first applying a composition formed of four 
parts of Armenian bole, and one of sugar 
candy, ground together to a proper consis- 
tence, and laying it on with a brush with 
the white of egg : this coating, when nearly 
dry, is smoothed by the burnisher; it is 
then slightly moistened with clean water, 
and the gold leaf applied, and afterwards 
burnished. In order to impress the gilt 
figures on the leather covers of books, the 
leather is first dusted over with very fine 
rezin, or mastich, then the iron tool by 
which the figure is made is moderately 
heated, and pressed down on a piece of leaf 
gold which slightly adheres to it, being then 
immediately applied to the surface of the 
leather with a certain force, the tool at the 
. same time makes an impression, and melts 
the mastich which lies between the heated 
iron and the leather; in consequence of this 
the gold with which the face of the tool is 
covered is made to adhere to the leather, so 
that on removing the tool a gilded impres- 
sion of it remains behind. 
Drinking glasses and other utensils of 
this material, are sometimes, especially in 
Germany, gilt on their edges : this is done 
in two rvays, either by a simple adhesive 
varnish or by means of fire. The varnish 
is prepared by dissolving in drying linseed 
oil, a quautityjof gum amine, or still better 
of clear amber, equal in weight to the lin- 
seed oil ; a very drying and adhesive var- 
nish is thus prepared, which being diluted 
with a proper quantity of oil of turpentine 
is to be applied as thin as possible to those 
parts of the glass which are intended to be 
gilded; when this is dry, which w r ill be 
about a day, the glass is to be placed by 
the fire side, or in a stove till it is so warm 
as almost to burn the fingers when handled ; 
at this temperature the varnish will become 
glutinous, and a piece of gold leaf applied 
in the usual way will immediately adhere ; 
when the gilding is thus put on, and before 
it is grown quite cold it may be burnished, 
taking care only to interpose a piece of very 
thin paper betwen the gold and the burn- 
isher. If the varnish is very good this Is 
the best method of gilding glass, as the 
gold is thus fixed on more evenly than in 
any other way : it often happens, however, 
that when the varnish is but indifferent, 
that by repeated washing the gold soon 
wears oft': on this account the practice of 
burning it in, is sometimes had recourse to. 
For this purpose some gold powder is 
tempered with borax, and in this state ap- 
plied to the clean surface of the glass, with 
a clean camels’ hair pencil ; when quite dry 
the glass is put in a stove heated to about 
the temperature of an annealing oven, the 
gum burns off, and the borax by vitrifying 
cements the gold with great firmness to 
the glass; after which it may be burnished. 
The gilding upon porcelain is in like man- 
ner fixed by fire and borax ; and this kind 
of ware being neither transparent nor liable 
to' soften, and thus injure its form in a low- 
red heat, is free from the risk and injury, 
which the finer and more fusible kinds of 
glass are apt to sustain from such treat- 
ment. 
All the methods of gilding hitherto des- 
cribed resemble each other by being ac- 
complished by means of some adhesive 
medium ; this, however, is not the case with 
Y 2 
