PARTS.
The first is colour for thin gilding. You take equal proportions of
sulphur, tartar well-pounded, and salt, grinding them separately,
then you take half a part of cuccuma[178] and you mix them all
four together. When you have the gilded parts well cleaned &
scratch-brushed, as I described above, you take a little urine of
children or boys, put it tepid into a clean pipkin and apply it with
hog sables, and the virtue of the urine and the sables will remove
any dirt or grease that may have come on the gold. This done, you
get a copper cauldron, or mayhap an earthen pot, & in one of the
twain, after filling it with boiling water, you put your colour
composition & stir it well up with a rod or a bunch of twigs till it
is thoroughly dissolved and mixed. Then you tie a bit of string, long
enough to hold it by, on to the work, and dangle it in for such time
as one might say an Ave Maria; after this you pull it out and dip it
into a vase of clear cold water. If it has not taken colour enough
you put it back again into the hot water, and so on for two or three
times till it be sufficient, minding, however, not to let it stay
in over long or else it will turn black and spoil the gilding. This
colouring matter is the weakest one can make and can only be used
for one turn.
FOOTNOTES:
[178] _More correctly, ‘curcuma’: turmeric root._