GOLD-LEAF.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9911, 28 July 1910, Page 2

GOLD-LEAF.

ITS ROMANCE AND MANUFACTURE. in an article on. gold-leaf hi tho '' Magazine of Commerce" Mr John Mastiu says that just as the date of the discovery of gold is too remote even to be guessed at, so is the origin ol' gold-leal lost in antiquity.

On some of the most ancient mummies discovered gold-leaf lias been used 011 the skin, tongue and teeth, etc., and in some instances on the coffins also. It also appears 011. tombs, monuments, and tho like; and, strange to say, though gilding with "thin sheets of hammered.gold," and "skins of gold" (otherwise gold-leaf), was known to be practised at least in the eighth century 8.C., the process of bringing the gold into these fine sheets or "skins" was, at any rate in tho eleventh century A.D., substantially the same ds that used to-day, 110 advance whatever having been made in the intervening nine centuries. Further, on some of the Grecian pottery of the fifth century the goldleaf used is as thin as that used to-day, so that in results obtained, also, we have not advanced in the least, but still keep practically to the same Average thickness, as that used on the Egyptian coffins of the third century A.IX, and most of the Greek vases of the fifth.

In almost every town of any size there is at least one firm of goldbeaters, and it may not be without interest to follow the" method employed in order to reduce the metal to such thinness that a mere breath will cause it to float away on the air. Though details may alter somewhat, in tho main the procedure is as follows:—The goldbeater must first obtain a supply of goldbeater's skin, sufficient- to make at least one "mould," the size and thickness of which vary according to taste, but the pieces of skin, or leaves, are usually about five or five and a quarter inches square and about one thousand in number.

They are made from the outer coating of membrane of the intestine, 'or blind gut of the ox, and a " mould ' of, say. a thousand leaves would absorb tins' particular gut from something like four hundred'and twenty head_ of cattle. This gut requires a considerable amount of preparation before it becomes goldbeater's skin. It must first bo soaked in an alkaline solution to neutralise the animal acids and render it. more workable;. it is then scraped and worked about with a knife very considerably, and after being treated with glue and animal albumen, should he perfectly clear, even, and transparent. It" is -then cut into squares to form a "mould," the "trimmings" or "clippings," as they are sometimes called, as well as the uneven pieces, being used in surgery, forming as they do excellent dressings for wounds. Tlio colour, of the gold depends entirely upon the metal. All have different qualities. The gold is first rolled down from the ingot- into long" strips about an inch broad, and of such a thickness that when a piece an inch square is cut off it weighs about six and a quarter grains. These strips are then cut into small squares and placed between slieots of strong, vellum-like paper, with a sheet of real vellum or parchment at intervals of every ten sheets (somo pliaco the real vellum at every three or four sheets, others at varying numbers up to every twenty or even more) throughout the wliole packet, the sheets of which are about four and a quarter inches square._ This filled packet, which is technically known as a "'cutch," is then pla.ced on a block of thick marble, under which is a leather, bed 1 , and under that a substantial heavy wooden counter or bench. Then the workman beats the "cutch" with a very heavy hammer, about in .weight, until the little squares of gold become slowly thinner, and broaden out accordingly so as to fill the surface of the leaves, or until they become about four inches square, or four times their original siee. This occupies an average of'about twenty minutes. They aro then taken out, and each sheet of gold is cut into four, or again into sheets of one inch square, and these thinner sheets are placed between leaves of goldbeater's skin, technically called a "shoder." This _ shoder is beaten with a hammer weighing nine or ten pounds until each square again spreads out to about four times its original size, being proportionately thinner.

5 Again, and for the second time, each sheet of gold is cut across each way at right angles, forming a further four pieces, each about one inch souave. After tho "cutnh" and "shoder" beating these small svd now extremely thin piece;? aro placed between the leaves of goldbeater's skin which form the "mould" already' described, and this timo thev aro beaten for four hours or more with a Novell or ehrH-pound hammer. when they n<raiu become broadened out to four inches or thereabouts, and are now so thin that 282.000 superimposed aro required to equal the thickness of an inch.