Gilding: an outline of the technological history of the plating of gold on to silver or copper in the Old World

A comparative study of PIXE and XRF corrected by Gamma-Ray Transmission for the non-destructive characterization of a gilded roman railing

“…No mercury was found above this level on any of the points of analysis on the gold layer, for any of the fragments studied. Thus, the gilding process probably consisted in hammering a thin layer of gold over the copper rail, as it is more usual since copper-lead alloys do not easily admit fire gilding [16,17].…”

Surface investigation of naturally corroded gilded copper-based objects

“…These factors can cause different chemical and structural transformations in the artefact giving rise to the formation of a wide panorama range of possible mineral species [4,8,[10][11][12]. The BSE image of Figure 2 shows that the thickness of the gilded layer is less than 10 μm, as often observed by other authors in Roman and Barbarians artefacts [1,[14][15] and EDS analyses do not detect the presence of Au and Hg in the substrate under the gilded layer thus excluding the occurrence of an Au-Cu inter-diffusion phenomenon, as instead which has been observed by other authors [23]. BSE and OM images also show that a granular structure is somewhere visible somewhere in the plating, with porous areas and flattened rounded grains whose diameter ranges from about 1 up to 3 μm.…”

In situ scanning micro-XRF analyses of gilded bronze figurines at the National Museum of Damascus

“…15 At that period, Ugarit became the center of interaction between Egypt, Crete, Cyprus and Anatolia promoting the exchange of the rst artistic styles within the ancient world. [18][19][20][21][22][23] Foil gilding was common in Mesopotamia with a mechanical or physical (pressed) application of a layer of gold onto the surface of a less precious metal. In the El God gurine (Fig.…”

“…32 There are no visible grooves on the examined objects, suggesting that the foils were mechanically fastened through the hammering process 19 and possibly by crimping. There have been studies 19,20,22 that report the technique of inserting a mineral layer, oen called "white preparation" made of calcite or plaster (gypsum) between the substrate and the gold leaf. There have been studies 19,20,22 that report the technique of inserting a mineral layer, oen called "white preparation" made of calcite or plaster (gypsum) between the substrate and the gold leaf.…”