Illustrated Architecture Dictionary.........................Illustrated FURNITURE Glossary
Gilded
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Decorated with a thin application of gold or gold paint
Used by the Egyptians.
Gilt: past tense and past participle of gilded
Oil-gilding: This is the laying of gold leaf on the wood using gold-size, which is a form of varnish. The process of gilding is several thousand years old.
Gold leaf: Gold beaten into extremely thin sheets used especially for gilding
Mirror Gilding in Early America Furniture
The method of gilding all frames, either partially or wholly, was the same. It was done only with gold leaf prepared in sheets about two by three inches in size. All gold leaf was made of pure gold, beaten tissue thin between leather skins with heavy mallets.
A gilding compound applied paintlike with a brush was never used. Such gold paints have no real gold in their mixture and are a mid-nineteenth-century invention.
For gold leafing, the portion to be gilded is first coated with gesso (whiting and glue mixed in water) to make the surface smooth. When dry, it is painted with a light coat of "tack" varnish which makes the gold leaf adhere readily.
After the leafing is finished, the frame is rubbed with small bats of lamb's wool which tightens the bond of gold leaf and tack and removes loose, overlapping fringes of the metal sheets.
Finally, the parts intended for a bright finish are burnished.
- Thomas H. Ormsbee, Field Guide to Early American Furniture, 1951
See also:
- 23 kt Patent Gold Leaf: Transfer Gilding Illustrated at bottom of page
- Basic Gilding 100 How to Gold Leaf An on-line step-by-step educational series offering precise gilding tutorials and gilding information
Examples from Buffalo:
- Illustration above: Architecture: 143 Linwood Avenue
- Buffalo Savings Bank/Goldome
- Bemis/Ransom House
- Illustration above: Furniture: Dining room chair, Horace Reed House
Other examples:
- Sainte Chapelle, Paris, France
- Church on Spilled Blood, St. Petersburg, Russia
- Catalonian National Art Museum, Barcelona, Spain Renaissance statue
- Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
- San Francisco "painted lady"
- Statue of Hercules: Capitoline Museums, Rome, Italy
- Furniture: Empire mirrored console (pier table) - Winterthur Museum
- Furniture: Federal mirror - MacKay Homestead, Genesee Country Village, & Museum
- Furniture: George III Adamesque carved and gilded mirror - Dana Tillou Fine Arts
- Furniture: George III Adamesque carved and gilded mirror - Dana Tillou Fine Arts
- Furniture: Baroque style armchair - Hofmobileliendepot Imperial Furniture Collection,Vienna, Austria
- Furniture: Baroque style table - Cathedral,Catania, Sicily
- Furniture: Baroque style candelabra - Hofmobileliendepot Imperial Furniture Collection,Vienna, Austria
