Gilding

Gilded frame ready for burnishing with an agate stone tool
Application of gold leaf to a reproduction of a 15th-century panel painting

Gilding is a decorative technique for applying a very thin coating of gold over solid surfaces such as metal (most common), wood, porcelain, or stone.[1] A gilded object is also described as "gilt". Where metal is gilded, the metal below was traditionally silver in the West, to make silver-gilt (or vermeil) objects, but gilt-bronze is commonly used in China, and also called ormolu if it is Western. Methods of gilding include hand application and gluing, typically of gold leaf, chemical gilding, and electroplating, the last also called gold plating.[2] Parcel-gilt (partial gilt) objects are only gilded over part of their surfaces. This may mean that all of the inside, and none of the outside, of a chalice or similar vessel is gilded, or that patterns or images are made up by using a combination of gilt and ungilted areas.

Gilding gives an object a gold appearance at a fraction of the cost of creating a solid gold object. In addition, a solid gold piece would often be too soft or too heavy for practical use. A gilt surface also does not tarnish as silver does.

Modern gilding is applied to numerous and diverse surfaces and by various processes.[a] More traditional techniques still form an important part of framemaking and are sometimes still employed in general woodworking, cabinet-work, decorative painting and interior decoration, bookbinding, and ornamental leather work, and in the decoration of pottery, porcelain, and glass.[3]

  1. ^ "Gold Leaf in Architecture: When, Where, & Why It Was Used". johncanningco.com. 4 September 2019. Archived from the original on 28 March 2023. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  2. ^ Sloan, Annie (1996) Decorative Gilding, Collins & Brown, ISBN 978-0-89577-879-6
  3. ^ Chisholm 1911, p. 13.


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