Dictionarium polygraphicum. Liquid gold and silver. To burnish gold. To make a very fine polish'd gold...

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol I.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
LIQUID GOLD and silver.
Take five or six leaves of Gold or silver, and grind them with a stiff gum lake water, and a good quantity of salt, as small as you can; then put it into a vial or glaz'd vessel, add to it as much fair water as may dissolve the stiff gum-water; then let it stand four hours that the Gold may settle, decant off this water, and put in more till the Gold is clean wash'd; then put more fair water to the Gold, a little sal armoniack and common salt, digesting it close for four days; then put all into a piece of thin glover's leather (whose grain is peel'd off) and hang it up, so will the sal armoniack fret away, and the Gold remain behind, which keep.

Or thus; grind leaf Gold with strong or thick gum-water, very fine, and while you are grinding it, add more thick gum water, being very fine wash it in a great shell, as you do bice, then temper it with a little Mercury sublimate, and a little dissolv’d gum to bind it to the shell; shake it, and spread the Gold about the sides thereof, that it may be all of one colour and fineness, which use with fair water, as you do other colours.

To burnish Gold.
Do the same as to liquid SILVER. Take gum-lake and dissolve it into a stiff water, then grind a blade or two of saffron with it, and you will have a fair Gold; when you have laid it and it is thoroughly dry, burnish it with a dog's tooth.

Or thus; Having written what you had a mind with your pen and pencil, cut the leaf Gold or silver into pieces, according to the size, take it up with a feather, or cotton, &c. and lay it upon the writing, or drawing, which press down with a piece of wool, and being dry burnish it.

To make a very fine polish’d GOLD.
The woods you would gild must be very smooth; and to ren der them the smoother, it will be proper to pass sea dog's skin over them.
Then size it over with a stuff or size made of the cuttings of white leather gloves, (see SIZE) and when it is thoroughly dry, lay on nine or ten layers of white.
When this is perfectly dry use your shave grass, that you may render it so much the kinder, and then having made some size and water warm, dip a linen rag into it, which wring out, and then rub the white.
Then lay on two or three layers of Gold colour, and more if it be not of a good body or deep enough; and when it is dry rub it well with a dry cloth, till it is bright again, then take of the strongest brandy you can get, and with a pencil brush wash the Gold colour with this brandy; and having leaf Gold ready cut, lying upon the cushion, clap it on the moment the pencil is gone over the part; and when it is dry polish it with a dog's tooth.

How to lay on GOLD and SILVER.
Set your piece slanting, and wet a part with a large pencil dipp'd in fair water, then having the Gold ready cut on the cushion, lay on the Gold, taking it up with a cotton.
When the whole is gilded, set it by to dry; but not either in the wind or sun, and when it is dry enough, burnish it with a dog's tooth.
To know when it is in a fit temper, pass the dog's tooth over it in some little places; and if it does not rub kindly, but peels off, it is not dry enough.
But on the other hand take care not to let it be too dry; for it will require so much the more trouble in polishing, and after you have done all you can, it will not have the lustre you desire.

To lay Gold on any thing.
Temper red-lead ground fine with linseed-oil, write with it, and lay leaf Gold upon it, let it dry and polish it.

To lay Gold on glass.
Grind together chalk and red-lead each a like quantity, and temper them with linseed-oil; lay it on and when it is almost dry, lay leaf Gold on it, let it be thoroughly dry and then polish it.

To MATT GOLD.
Make a red with red-lead, a little vermilion and the white of an egg, well beaten up; grind the whole upon a marble, and clap it into the deep or hollow places with a pencil.

To make SHELL GOLD and SHELL SILVER.
Grind leaf Gold with honey just out of the hive, or very pure on a clean marble, till it is extremely soft under your hand; then put it into a glass of fair water, and stir it, changing the water till it is very clear and fine.
Then pour it into the quantity of a penny-worth of aqua fortis, and let it lie for two days, then take out the Gold, and the aqua fortis may serve another time, the same may be done with silver.
When you would lay on either the one or the other, temper it with one or two drops of a very thin gum water, and to give it the smoother face, let your water be soap'd.
It will be also proper to have a wash of gallstone under the Gold, which sets it much off.