_The materials necessary for gilding of this kind are_--
A Gilder’s Knife.
A ditto Cushion.
Some Gold Leaf.
A little Cotton Wool.
A few Camel’s Hair Pencils.
One or two Hog’s Hair Tools.
A Tip.
Oil Gold Size.
Fat Oil.
Drying Oil, and a
Burnishing Stone.
They cost only a few shillings, and with care last a very long time.
Size the wood work twice over with parchment size, cut all the leaves,
and make the flowers in the usual manner; size them all over twice with
parchment size; nail them down to the frame, and glue them when tacks
would look unsightly: needle points are very useful in this work to
secure it firmly, and cut them short off when the glued parts are
dry--all the flowers and leaves being attached, go over the entire work
again with parchment size very thinly; the parchment size must be used
warm; when the size is dry, mix well in a cup or any clean earthen
vessel about an ounce of oil gold size, and with equal parts of fat oil
and drying oil thin the gold size to the consistence of cream; take a
hog’s-hair tool, and with it brush equally and very thinly all over
every part that can be seen with this prepared gold size, set it on one
side for an hour or two or more, until it has become almost dry, and
just sticks to your fingers when touched: it must now be gilded all
over, and to do this, take a book of gold, handling it quietly, and mind
there is no draft, as a current of air would blow all the gold away:
turn out of the book two or three leaves of gold upon the cushion, and
blow gently upon the centre of each leaf, to make them lay flat on the
cushion; with the gilder’s knife cut the gold leaves into the sizes
required to cover the work, and with the tip of the gilder’s knife take
up the gold from the cushion and lay it all over the frame till it is
covered, pressing the gold down with a large camel hair tool or a piece
of cotton wool, taking care not to rub it backward or forward, but to
put it very straight down on to the work; should there be any holes
left, cut small pieces of gold leaf and lay over them, pressing the gold
down, proceeding in the above manner till the frame is covered all over
with gold; it must then be left to dry an hour or two, and when dry
brush all the loose gold off with a large camel hair or badger’s hair
tool, and the gilding is completed. Leather work gilded by the above
process will bear washing, and is the most durable kind of gilding
known.