The ether will be found to have taken up all the gold from the acid, and may be used for gilding iron or steel, for which purpose the metal is polished with fine emery and spirits of wine. The whole mixture is then poured into a separating funnel with a small aperture, and allowed to rest for some time, when the acid is run off from below and the gold dissolved in ether separated. The liquids are agitated and allowed to rest, to allow the ether to separate and float on the surface of the acid. Wet gilding is effected by means of a dilute solution of gold(III) chloride in aqua regia with twice its quantity of ether. Fire-gilding of metal goes back at least to the 4th century BC, and was known to Pliny (33,20,64–5), Vitruvius (8,8,4) and in the Early Mediaeval period to Theophilus (De Diversis Artibus Book III). Owing to the comparative thickness of the gold leaf used in ancient gilding, the traces of it that remain are remarkably brilliant and solid. But he adds that luxury advanced on them so rapidly that in very little time you might see all, even private and poor people, gild the walls, vaults, and other parts of their dwellings. Pliny the Elder informs us that the first gilding seen at Rome was after the destruction of Carthage, under the censorship of Lucius Mummius, when the Romans began to gild the ceilings of their temples and palaces, the Capitol being the first place on which this process was used. ![]() Extensive ornamental gilding was also used in the ceiling coffers of the Propylaea. Certain Ancient Greek statues of great prestige were chryselephantine, i.e., made of gold (for the clothing) and ivory (for the flesh) these however, were constructed with sheets of gold over a timber framework, not gilded. ![]() Herodotus mentions that the Egyptians gilded wood and metals, and many such objects have been excavated.
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