Silver-gilt Techniques
- Silver-gilt objects have been made since ancient times across Eurasia
- Various gilding techniques have been used, including overlaying or folding gold foil or gold leaf
- Fire-gilding with mercury was a common method until the Early Modern period, despite its dangers
- Electroplating is now the most commonly used method, as it is safer and does not involve mercury
- Keum-boo is a special Korean technique of silver-gilding
Vermeil
- Vermeil is an alternative term for silver-gilt, originating from French
- The term is more commonly used in American English than in British English
- Vermeil can also refer to gilt bronze, which is a less costly alternative material than silver
- The US Code of Federal Regulations defines vermeil as sterling silver coated or plated with gold of not less than 10-karat fineness
- Vermeil objects must have a substantial thickness of gold throughout
Considerations in use
- Silver-gilt objects could be regilded at any point, as the gold would wear off over time
- Items regularly handled, such as toilet service sets or tableware, often required regilding after a few years
- Sometimes only the interior of cups was gilded, possibly due to concerns about cleaning tarnish from silver
- Fully silver-gilt items are visually indistinguishable from solid gold
- The gilding of objects was sometimes used to deceive and make them appear more valuable than they actually were
Also
- Category:Silver-gilt objects
- Vermeil Room, where the White House's extensive collection of silver-gilt objects is displayed
Citations
- German Olympic museum website and Beijing 2008 Appendix 8
- Homers Odyssey (Bk vi, 232) mentions overlaying or hammering gold foil or gold leaf
- Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition (1989)
- US Code of Federal Regulations, 16CFR23.5
- British Museum, mentioning examples of silver-gilt objects
Silver-gilt Data Sources
| Reference | URL |
|---|---|
| Glossary | https://harryandcojewellery.com.au/blogs/glossary/silver-gilt |
| Wikipedia | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver-gilt |
| Wikidata | https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q390584 |
| Knowledge Graph | https://www.google.com/search?kgmid=/m/0b3866 |