Chapter XI: Appendix: On Gilding

(_By Graily Hewitt_)

Success with raised gilding can only be expected when practice has rendered attention to the details of the process automatic and there is no need to pause and think. Even then the results must be somewhat uncertain and experimental. For our own preparations of size are usually unsatisfactory, and the ingredients of the best we can buy are unknown to us. And our vellum is certainly not of the quality we find in the old books. Some one is badly wanted to investigate the chemistry of the one and an appropriate preparation of the other. But we can take as much care as our time allows, passing nothing as “good enough” which we have not well examined, and bringing to the business all the patience and deftness available.

Vellum is too stiff, or too dry, or too greasy. When stiff, it is too thick for books; when dry, too apt to crack or cockle; when too greasy, exasperating. And yet the soft and rather greasy sort can be rendered more agreeable than the rest with labour. It should be rubbed by the flat of the hand with powdered pumice (or even fine sandpaper on the rough side) and French chalk, especially on its split (or rougher) side, until it is serviceable. A few trials will teach how long to give to this. Five minutes for one side of a lamb’s skin would not be too much. It can then be beaten with a silk handkerchief, but not rubbed with this until the size has been laid. It may be rubbed cleaner between the laying of the size and the gilding. Especially must those parts of pages be thoroughly rubbed clean which in the book, when made up, will lie upon and be pressed against gold letters on the page opposite; or the pumice left behind will scratch them. On the other hand, if the vellum has not been thoroughly pumiced on both pages, the greasiness in [p168] it will dim the gold in time, both from above and below; or even make the size flake off altogether. The size is often blamed for faults of the vellum and its want of preparation.

Again size, or “raising preparation,” is too sticky or too dry. If the former, the gold will not burnish well; if the latter, it will burnish, but will not stick at the edges, and will crack sooner or later. And though the essential quality of gilding is brightness, one may be content to fail of this rather than have letters ragged in outline or broken on the surface.

The size in use should be just liquid enough to flow evenly from the pen. More water makes it dry too brittle, and tends to cockle the vellum also; less tends to blobbiness and unevenness. Even when it is put on fairly an uncomfortable groove is apt to form as it dries down the centre of letters; but this can be either filled up as soon as the first layer is dryish, or the sides of the groove can be scraped (when the letter is quite dry) down to the level of the groove itself with a sharp knife. The knife must be sharp. As this scraping does not affect the extreme edges the power of the size there to hold the leaf is not impaired by it; and certainly a well-scraped surface is extremely even and pleasant to gild. If the surface, however, be burnished and not scraped before laying the leaf, it will not hold the size well, and remains lumpy also where lumps were there originally; while scraping gets rid of these. During use the size should be kept thoroughly mixed; and a small sable brush serves well for this purpose, as soon as it can be used so carefully as not to cause bubbles.

To know the exact time to allow between laying and gilding one had need to be a meteorologist, so much “depends on the weather.” Very dry and very wet weather are equally unkind. Generally an interval of about twenty-four hours is right; but it is better to gild too soon than too late, provided one can be content, on testing the naked surface of the gilded letter with a [p169] burnisher, and noting that the glitter is reluctant to come, to leave the burnishing for a while, and only lay the leaf, pressing it well home to the outline of the letters. The burnishing can then be done in a few more hours. But if the size be too dry, the difficulty will be to make the leaf stick to it at all. In this case the leaf adhering can be scraped off, the size scraped down further, and another thin coat added and gilded after a shorter interval. If the letter be so fouled that such repairs are difficult, it should be entirely scraped away and the size relaid altogether. In doing this care is needed that the vellum be not injured round the letter.

The best gold-leaf for ordinary work costs about 3s. for twenty-five pages. More expensive leaf, being thicker, does not stick so well to the edges; cheaper is too thin to burnish well. Two kinds may be used together with good results, the finer leaf being put on next the size, and the thicker at once on to the top of that. The letter is then pressed and outlined as usual through paper, and the thin leaf will be found of considerable assistance towards the making of a clean cut edge. Generally, however, the piling on of several leaves is inadvisable, as bits are liable to flake away as the letter goes on drying, leaving dim specks where they have been. Yet if, after the outlining through the paper, the leaf is seen to be very dull or speckled with the colour of the size, this means that the size has been partly pressed through the leaf; and another laid immediately will have enough to stick to, and will burnish well. The best result comes of one moderately thick leaf laid and burnished at the right time as quickly as possible. Thicker leaves need only be used for large surfaces, where the edge can be scraped even and clean, or where a black outline is to be added.

As soon as the leaf is laid, and from that point onward, the breath must be kept from the letter with a shield (of cardboard or tin) held in the left hand or otherwise. Inattention to this is responsible for many failures. Not [p170] only should the actual letters under operation be so protected, but where a quantity are sized ready for gilding on the page these should be protected also, as well as any parts already finished; for breath not only moistens but warms, and on warm size moisture condenses less easily. If the work to be done presently is so warmed, it will be found more difficult to deal with when its time comes. The first work done in the day is often the best, and for this reason, that the size for it is cool; but in gilding this portion one almost necessarily warms that to be done later. Two pages, where possible, should therefore be gilded alternately, one cooling while a portion of the other is gilded. Or thin plates of metal, or even cardboard, may be placed about as shields to protect all surfaces not under actual operation.

Superfluous gold is best removed by dusting lightly with an old and very clean and dry silk handkerchief. Indiarubber will certainly remove gold from the vellum, but it will as certainly dim any part of the gilding it touches. If the vellum was properly pounced to start with the silk will easily remove all the leaf unstuck, except little odds and ends, and these are safeliest taken away with the point of a knife.

As the pressure of burnishing helps the leaf to stick, it is best to wait till the letter has been burnished before this dusting. Such spots as are visible ungilded may be afterwards treated with a slight breath and transfer gold-leaf, or gold dust, may be painted on them. In the latter case the spots must be most carefully burnished, if burnished at all, or their surroundings will be scratched.

When a gold letter is to be set on a coloured background, or in the neighbourhood of colour, it is best put on after the colour; as may be observed was the method occasionally with the old books. If the gold is put on first, it will certainly be dimmed by warmth and breath during the colouring. On the other hand, if it is put on last, great care must be taken that the gold-leaf shall not stick to the coloured portions. Where possible, a stencil [p171] pattern of the parts to be gilded should be cut out of paper. This is easily made from a pencil rubbing taken after the size is laid, the raised pattern being of course cut out carefully a trifle larger than the outline so obtained. The paper is then laid over all the work, and the sized portions showing through the cuttings can be gilded without injury to the colour.

All gilded work should be retained, if possible, for a week or more, and then re-burnished. And in burnishing generally the burnisher should not be used, even when the size is hard, with any great force or pressure at first. For the size in drying sets as if moulded, and this mould cannot be squeezed about or actually crushed without being loosened or cracked. Throughout the whole process a gentle and vigilant alacrity is required. Success will come easily if it means to come. It cannot be forced to come.

The binder of a book with gilding in it should be warned to press the sheets as little as possible, and to use all his care in handling it, so as to keep moisture, warmth, and fingering from the gold. The folding of the sheets, when left to him, should also be done rather differently from usual, for all gilded pages need to be kept as flat as possible. None of the sizes in use seem capable of resisting bending of their surfaces without crimping or cracking. Where there is much gilding, the book will be the better for being sewn with a zigzag[32] through the sections, as this helps to “guard” the gilded work. [p172]