Gold leaf

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Goldbeating
)
"Goldleaf" redirects here. For other uses, see Gold leaf (disambiguation).
A gold nugget of 5 mm (0.2 in) in diameter (bottom) can be expanded through hammering into a gold foil of about 0.5 m2 (5.4 sq ft). Toi gold mine museum, Japan.

Gold leaf is

goldbeating,[2] for use in gilding
.

Gold leaf is a type of

karats
and shades. The most commonly used gold is 22-karat yellow gold. Pure gold is 24 karat. Real, yellow gold leaf is approximately 91.7% pure (i.e. 22-karat) gold.

Traditional water gilding is the most difficult and highly regarded form of gold leafing. It has remained virtually unchanged for hundreds of years and is still done by hand.

History

Mycenaean necklace; 1400–1050 BC; gilded terracotta; diameter of the rosettes: 2.7 cm, with variations of circa 0.1 cm, length of the pendant 3.7 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
(New York City)

5,000 years ago,

cast-iron hammer
and a few other innovations, the tools and techniques have remained virtually unchanged for thousands of years.

Gold-leaf forging is a traditional handicraft in

Two Jins (266 – 420) dynasties; it was used in Buddha-statue manufacturing and construction. It was widely used in the gilding of Buddha statues and idols and in the construction industry during the Eastern Wu (222-280) and Eastern Jin (266–420) dynasties.[4] During the Qing dynasty (1640-1912), the technology developed, and Nanjing gold leaf was sold overseas. It retains traditional smelting, hand-beating and other techniques, and the gold leaf is pure, uniform and soft. On May 20, 2006, it was included[citation needed] in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage representative items.[5][6][7][8] Modern gold-leaf artists combine ancient traditional crafts with modern technology to make traditional gold leaf. Forging skills are more sophisticated.[9][10] Gold-foil production in Nanjing follows the ancient production process. The forging process has been tempered by more than a dozen processes such as gold bar, leaf beat, twisting, opening, assembly, issuing, and foil cutting. It is also called[citation needed] "playing gold leaf". According to the needs of different products, a proportion of silver and copper is added; the metal is then melted into liquid form, poured into an iron tank, cooled to form gold bars, hammered into thin slices, cut into small gold pieces, and then covered with gold foil and hammered into gold foil repeatedly at high temperature.[11][12][13][14][15]

Production

An engraving showing the goldbeating process, 1698
22k gold leaf applied with an ox hair brush during the process of gilding

The process of hammering gold into leaf is known as goldbeating.

The

karat
and color of gold leaf vary depending on the amount of silver or copper added to the gold. Most goldbeaters make 22 karat leaf. The gold and its alloy are put in a crucible and melted in a furnace. The liquid gold is poured into a mold to cast it into a bar. The bar of gold is put through a rolling mill repeatedly. Each time through the mill, the rollers are adjusted closer and closer to each other, to make the gold thinner and thinner. The bar is rolled to a thickness of 25 micrometres (1⁄1000 in).

After rolling, the ribbon of gold is cut into one-inch squares. The first step in the beating process is called the cutch.

Mylar, are used. Using wooden pincers, the preparer picks up each square of gold and places it in the center of each skin. When the cutch is filled with the small gold squares, it is wrapped in several bands of parchment
which serve to hold the packet together during the beating. Parchment is still the best material known to withstand the hours of repeated hammer blows needed to beat the gold.

Goldbeating in Mandalay (Myanmar)

The gold is beaten on a large, heavy block of marble or granite. These stone blocks were sometimes placed on top of a tree trunk set deep into the ground. This created greater resiliency for the hammer. Beating of the cutch by hand takes about one hour using a fifteen-pound hammer. The goldbeater follows a pattern and sets up a rhythm, striking the packet with up to seventy strokes a minute[citation needed] . The packet is rotated and turned over to ensure that the gold inside expands evenly in all directions. The original small squares of gold are beaten until they have expanded to the outer edges of the four inch square cutch. The gold is taken out of the cutch and each piece is cut into four pieces with a knife. Using the pincers, these squares of gold are put into a second packet called the shoder, which has approximately 1,500 skins. The shoder is beaten for about three hours until the gold has expanded to a five-inch square.

The gold is taken out of the shoder and placed on a leather-covered surface. The gold is thin enough now that the cutter can simply blow on it to flatten it out.[clarification needed] Using a wooden implement called a wagon, the gold is quickly cut into four pieces and immediately placed in a packet called a mold for the final beating.[3] The wagon has sharp cutting blades, traditionally made from malacca cane (rattan). The mold contains 1,500 pieces of gold. Before the mold is filled with gold, the skins are coated with a gypsum powder. This process prevents the delicate gold leaf from sticking to the skins.[17] The mold is beaten with an 8-pound (3.6 kg) hammer for three to four hours until it has been beaten into a circle about six inches (15 cm) in diameter. The finished leaf forms an unbroken sheet of gold with a thickness of approximately 100 nanometres (1⁄250000 in). After the leaves are taken out of the mold, they are conventionally cut into a three-and-three-eighths-inch (8.6 cm) square and packaged in tissue-paper books containing twenty-five leaves.

Uses

Early 20th century leather book cover, with gold leaf ornamentation

Art

Gold leaf is sometimes used in art in a "raw" state, without a gilding process. In cultures including the

European Bronze Age it was used to wrap objects such as bullae simply by folding it tightly over, and the Classical group of gold lunulae are so thin, especially in the centre, that they might be classed as gold leaf. It has been used in jewellery
in various periods, often as small pieces hanging freely.

The

Early Christian art, and then used in icons and Western panel paintings until the late Middle Ages; all techniques use gold leaf. Since the decline of gold ground painting, gold leaf has been most popular and most common in its use as gilding material for decoration of art (including statues and Eastern Christian icons) or the picture frames that are often used to hold or decorate paintings, mixed media, small objects (including jewellery) and paper art. Gold leaf is also used in Buddhist art
and various other Asian traditions to decorate statues and symbols.

tesserae
gold mosaics.

In Western

gelatinous
water. Because the gold is not pulverized as in industrially produced metal inks, the resulting surface looks very much like solid gold.

"Gold" frames made without leafing are also available for a considerably lower price, but traditionally some form of gold or metal leaf was preferred when possible and gold leafed (or silver leafed) moulding is still commonly available from many of the companies that produce commercially available moulding for use as picture frames.

Architecture

Various gilded architectural ornaments of the Palace of Versailles

Gold leaf has long been an integral component of architecture to designate important structures, both for aesthetics and because gold's non-reactive nature provides a protective finish.

Gold in architecture became an integral component of Byzantine and Roman churches and basilicas in 400 AD, most notably

Franciscan friar, Jacopo Torriti
.

Gold leaf and painted coffers of the Senate chamber ceiling in Centre Block

In

clàrsach, Welsh Dragons, and lions passant. This plane rests on six pairs and four single pilasters, each of which is capped by a caryatid, and between which are clerestory windows. Below the windows is a continuous architrave, broken only by baldachins
at the base of each of the above pilasters.

In

mother of pearl, turquoise being lined with warm marble and formed into blind arcades with semi-elliptical arches resting on slender octagonal columns, their unmolded capitals and the impost being encrusted with goldground mosaic[20]

Gold leaf adorns the wrought iron gates surrounding the Palace of Versailles in France, when refinishing the gates nearly 200 years after they were torn down during the French Revolution, it required hundreds of kilograms of gold leaf to complete the process.[21]

Cuisine

Mille-feuille with some gold leaf in the Nishimuraya Hotel Shogetsutei from Kinosaki, Hyōgo, Japan)

Gold leaf (as well as other

E-number E175. A centuries-old traditional artisan variety of green tea contains pieces of gold leaf; 99% of this kind of tea is produced in Kanazawa, Japan, a historic city for samurai craftsmanship.[23] The city is also home to a gold leaf museum, Kanazawa Yasue Gold Leaf Museum
.

In

Goldwasser from Schwabach in Germany, and the Swiss Goldschläger
, which is perhaps the best known in both Canada and the United States.

See also

References

  1. ^ Vilfranc, Jenifer M. (1999). Elert, Glenn (ed.). "Thickness of gold leaf". The Physics Factbook. Retrieved 2022-03-05.
  2. ^ "gold leaf | art". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2017-06-20.
  3. ^
    doi:10.1007/BF03215119
    .
  4. ^ 叶聪 (2014-07-15). ""南京非遗"文化视域下的家具产品创新设计研究". （金陵科技学院，南京 211169）.
  5. ^ "第一批國家非物質文化遺產-南京金箔锻制技艺". 愛學術. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  6. ^ "南京金箔鍛製技藝". 龍媒網. Retrieved 2021-08-02.
  7. ^ "【國家級非物質文化遺產系列玖】南京金箔鍛製技藝". 蓮花時報. Retrieved 2021-08-11.
  8. ^ 管秋惠. "南京金箔鍛製技藝". 參考網. Retrieved 2021-08-11.
  9. ^ "古老技藝"點亮"現代生活 金箔文創亮相南京". 中國新聞網. 2019-05-20.
  10. ^ 丁婷 (2019-05-20). "南京金箔传统锻制技艺的保护与传承研究". 博碩論文_南京師範大學. Archived from the original on 2021-11-14. Retrieved 2023-05-03.
  11. ^ "萬錘鍛製箔金來". 澳門日報. 2020-08-16. Archived from the original on 2021-11-14. Retrieved 2023-05-03.
  12. ^ "南京金箔锻制技艺". 学科分类—综合性图书 五洲传播出版社《中国辞典》第327页. 2021-11-14.
  13. ^ "南京金箔——萬錘鍛制箔金來". 新華網. 2020-07-26.
  14. ^ "南京金箔博物馆免费开放". 揚子晚報. 2017-03-07.
  15. ^ "当春联遇上非遗！金陵金箔"闹新春"". 我苏网. 2021-02-17.
  16. ISBN 9780195313918
    . Retrieved June 30, 2017 – via Google Books.
  17. ^ Chambers; Patrick, David; Geddie, William (1901). Chambers's encyclopaedia: A dictionary of universal knowledge. p. 283.
  18. ISBN 9780297779032
    .
  19. ^ Charles A. Coulombe, Vicars of Christ, p. 330.
  20. ^ "Survey of London: Volumes 29 and 30, St James Westminster, Part 1", British History Online, 1960, retrieved 9 April 2015
  21. ^ ""L'ameublement de la chambre de Louis XIV à Versailles de 1701 à nos jours"". Gazette des Beaux-Arts (6th Ed.): 79–104. February 1989.
  22. ISBN 978-0794602550
    . Retrieved 2013-08-15.
  23. ^ "Japanese Culture/The Way/Tea ceremony/Let's Try". www.city.kanazawa.ishikawa.jp.

External links

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