You think penmanship is a dying art? Try gold-beating.

[oldbrownhat]

Some of us remember sign-writers applying gold leaf to windows. Some of it still survives, although there are probably few signwriters now who can use it, or do hand lettering with a "quill". Properly applied, it can last for centuries. This is a long-ish read but fascinating (IMHO)

The Last Gold Beater in Venice

In the 1700s, there were about 300 artisans making gold leaf in the city. Now there is just Marino Menegazzo, who is also one of very few remaining in Europe.

In Venice, a person is surrounded by gold.

It clothes the statue of the archangel Gabriel atop the bell tower on St. Mark’s Square and glistens in the mosaics on the facade of St. Mark’s Basilica, aptly nicknamed “the Golden Church.” It sometimes appears in the artisanal glass from the island of Murano, on gondola ornaments, the better-quality masks for Carnival and even on top of rice dishes and desserts in restaurants across the city.

All of these examples use beaten gold, thin sheets of the precious metal, also called gold leaf. And much of it comes from the workshop of Marino Menegazzo, widely acknowledged as the last goldbeater — or battiloro, in Italian — to produce golden leaves using traditional techniques in Venice and one of very few remaining in Europe...

​

Marino Menegazzo with his wife, Sabrina Berta, and their daughter Sara, in front of the Venice workshop.

When I was in my late 20's I got interested in calligraphy and made halting attempts to learn to lay gold leaf on specially-prepared "size" on hand-made paper. I still have part of a book of leaf, which, if I were to dare to open and pick up on the "gilder's tip", is so thin you can see through it, and see how evenly it is beaten. The knife was used to cut (part) it.

I worked for a graphic arts supply company many years ago and we sold these books of gold leaf. As I recall, back then it was about $35 for a book of 25 leaves. I remember I took an order for 30 books (!), which pretty much cleaned out the stock from the distributor in Toronto. As I recall, someone was gilding a bedroom (!!!) for a very posh house

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I saw a National Geographic show many years ago showing men in India beating the gold in leather coverings to make Leaf. So, the cost of labor exported jobs from Italy also.

Ivan

 

[Chuck24]

Had to look just to see what gold beating was

 

[Ματθιας]

Gold and silver leaf still being used in custom car paint jobs.

 

[oldbrownhat]

I saw a National Geographic show many years ago showing men in India beating the gold in leather coverings to make Leaf. So, the cost of labor exported jobs from Italy also.

Ivan

I imagine they've been using gold (and silver) leaf in India for a long time. I did a quick online check for genuine gold leaf and it runs about $50-60 a book (25 leaves). Not a substance to be used where there is any chance of wind... or cats It's only about 0.15 micron thick.

 

[Peak53]

I admire the old craft, but it seems like candidate for a press.

 

[rwsmith]

I used to do....

...calligraphy. I did lettering, of course, and Leroy lettering as a draftsman. My handwriting is terrible, though.

I would have to be really motivated to try calligraphy again. Reloading and music practice take up my tedium tolerability.

PS: I've done a tiny bit of gold leaf in my time.

 

[oldbrownhat]

...calligraphy. I did lettering, of course, and Leroy lettering as a draftsman. My handwriting is terrible, though.....

LOL. When I was working in Phone Sales for the graphic arts supply company, sometimes the order pickers would come to me and ask what I had written! Probably caused by writing too fast under pressure. Even today I sometimes have trouble reading my scrawl. But my signature is similar to John Hancock's.

Leroy lettering sets... We sold those, as well as lettering guides from Keuffer & Essel, I think. And Letraset! We were the largest Letraset dealer in Western Canada. I can still remember the product codes for the single and double sheets: 19750 & 19751.

Calligraphy-wise, I got as far as learning to cut and prepare turkey quills. But I never had a chance to try using real vellum (sheepskin.)

 

[ameridaddy]

I imagine they've been using gold (and silver) leaf in India for a long time. I did a quick online check for genuine gold leaf and it runs about $50-60 a book (25 leaves). Not a substance to be used where there is any chance of wind... or cats It's only about 0.15 micron thick.

You might enjoy this article on gold leaf making in Kanazawa, Japan.

Kanazawa Gold Leaf: An Art Passed Down Through Generations | JAPAN Monthly Web Magazine | JNTO

I watched this whole process on one of my business trips about 30 years ago, and was absolutely amazed by the skill and centuries of knowledge in the process. An artisan put a one inch square of the finished leaf in the palm of my hand, and it dissolved - vanished - when I touched it, yet the artisans handle squares of it about 4"x4" with bamboo chopsticks as easily as we handle a pizza. Surprisingly, there is as much, maybe more artistry in making the paper liners for the gold sheets as the gilding sheets themselves.

 

[SAFireman]

They still use real gold leaf to letter fire trucks. It is a dying art, and there is only 1 guy that I know of in Texas that still does it, and stripes by hand. A dept near to me has a hand drawn pump & hose cart made in the late 1880's that still has it's leaf & scrolls. They had asked if I would help them find someone to restore it, I declined and told them that it would only be original ONCE, and it was NICE.

 

[stu1ritter]

My father owned a picture framing business in New York City back when they bought raw molding in 20 foot sticks and finished it themselves. I loved to sit and watch the leafer as he dropped sheets of gold or silver leaf onto the moldings and wiped it down. Just watching the leaf sheets float thru the air and then land exactly where the leafer wanted them to was an amazing sight. Very highly skilled labor.

Stu

 

[Kinman]

My wife used to do calligraphy, a very painstaking process. I've seen gold leaf applied to a paint job by using his breath to blow the leaf on the object.
A friend of mine used to re-silver antique mirrors, indeed a lost art, mostly because the chemicals used were considered hazardous in the state of California.
Similarly nearly everything in this town that is chrome plated is sent out to California where I'm fairly certain is then sent South to Mexico where the EPA does not exist. I had the bumpers of my '51 Ford stripped of their guards and license plate holes and everything filled and show chromed. They came back beautiful, the local plater told me they went to Mexico where the work is done.
I haven't been in an electric car, a relative owns a Tesla and loves it, I'm not interested. I would not trust a self driving car but do like the way my back-up camera makes some parking jobs very easy. I also like the warning device that lets me know some idiot is walking behind me while I am backing up in a parking lot...I don't know about you but when I see someone backing up I stop and wait them out. I know....I know "Im walking here."

 

[oldbrownhat]

My wife used to do calligraphy, a very painstaking process. I've seen gold leaf applied to a paint job by using his breath to blow the leaf on the object.

The "size" is hygroscopic and absorbs the moisture. Usually two pieces are laid on, then burnished with an agate burnisher, and any stray gold brushed or scraped away. It is indeed painstaking! I've seen 13th c. bibles with gilded initials that are proibably as bright as they day they were made.

Offhand I can't remember all the components of the size, but at one time white lead (lead carbonate) was one of the main ingredients, along with red ochre and I think rabbit skin size, and ground in a mortar & pestle. I doubt you can buy lead carbonate now I still have some, along with red ochre, which I bought at Falkiner Fine Papers in London 40-odd years ago. Also have some sandarac - which sounds like one of the guys thrown into the fiery furnace by Nebuchadnezzar - but is a resin in granular form used to stop ink from "bleeding".