As mankind could not have everything that they wished for of gold,
they were contented with incrusting many articles with this precious
metal. For that purpose the gold was beat into plates, with which the
walls of apartments, dishes, and other vessels were covered. In early
ages these plates were thick, so that gilding in this manner was very
expensive[38]; but in process of time the expense was much lessened,
because the art was discovered of making these gold plates thinner,
and of laying them on with a size. Articles however ornamented in this
manner were still costly, and the valuable metal was always lost.
Yellow golden colours of all kinds were then tried; but these did
not fully produce the required effect, as they wanted that splendour
peculiar to metals, and appeared always languid and dull. It was not
till modern times that artists conceived the idea of overlaying with
silver, or some cheaper white metal, such things as they wished to
have the appearance of gold, and then daubing them over with a yellow
transparent varnish, in order to give to the white metal the colour
of gold, and to the colour the splendour of metal. “When we cover
our houses with gold,” says Seneca, “do we not show that we delight
in deception? for we know that coarse wood is concealed under that
gold[39].”
This ingenious process, which at present is employed all over Europe
in gilding wooden frames, coaches, and various articles, and which
was formerly used in the preparation of the now old-fashioned leather
tapestry, was invented towards the end of the 17th century. Anderson,
in his Historical and chronological deduction of the Origin of
Commerce, says that it was introduced into England by one Evelyn in the
year 1633; and quotes, in support of this assertion, The Present State
of England, printed in 1683.
This invention, however, does not belong to the English, but to the
Italians, and properly to the Sicilians. Antonino Cento, an artist of
Palermo, found out the gold varnish, and in the year 1680 published
there an account of the method of preparing it. That work I have never
seen; but I found this information in a book printed at Palermo in
1704, and entitled The Inventions of the Sicilians[40]. Among the few
important things contained in this book, the greater part of which is
compiled from old Latin writers, there is, in the additions, a receipt
how to prepare the gold varnish (_vernice d’oro_). The whole account I
shall transcribe, as the authors of the French Journal of Agriculture,
Commerce, and the Arts, thought it worth their trouble to make it known
in that work in 1778.
“Take shell-lac, and having freed it from the filth and bits of wood
with which it is mixed, put it into a small linen bag, and wash it in
pure water, till the water no longer becomes red; then take it from the
bag and suffer it to dry. When it is perfectly dry, pound it very fine;
because the finer it is pounded the more readily will it dissolve. Then
take four parts of spirit of wine, and one of the lac, reduced, as
before directed, to an impalpable powder, so that for every four pounds
of spirit you may have one of lac: mix these together, and, having put
them into an alembic, graduate the fire so that the lac may dissolve in
the spirit. When dissolved, strain the whole through a strong piece of
linen cloth; throw away what remains in the cloth, as of no use, and
preserve the liquor in a glass bottle closely corked. This is the gold
varnish which may be employed for gilding any kind of wood.
“When you wish to use it, you must, in order that the work may be done
with more smoothness, employ a brush made of the tail of a certain
quadruped called the vari, well-known to those who sell colours for
painting; and with this instrument dipped in the liquor wash gently
over, three times, the wood which has been silvered. You must, however,
remember every time you pass the brush over the wood to let it dry; and
thus your work will be extremely beautiful, and have a resemblance to
the finest gold.”
After this invention was made known, it was not difficult to vary,
by several methods, the manner of preparing it. Different receipts,
therefore, have for that purpose been given in a number of books, such
as Croker’s Painter, and others: and, on this account, young artists
are frequently at a loss which to choose; and when a receipt is found
better than another, experienced artists keep it always secret.
With the preparation of that varnish used for gilding leather tapestry
Reaumur was acquainted, and from his papers it was made known by
Fougeroux de Bondaroy. The method of making the English varnish was
communicated by Scarlet to Hellot, in the year 1720; and by Graham
to Du Fay, in 1738. In the year 1761, Hellot gave the receipt to the
Academy of Sciences at Paris, who published it in their memoirs for
that year.
If it be true, as Fougeroux says, that gilded tapestry was made above
two hundred years ago, it might be worth the little trouble that such
an examination would require to investigate the method used to gild it.