The treatises of Benvenuto Cellini on goldsmithing and sculpture

Chapter 69: FOOTNOTES:

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About This Book

A combined manual of goldsmithing and sculpture lays out practical, workshop-focused instructions and recipes for metalworking processes, including niello, filigree, enamelling, gem setting, diamond cutting and tinting, gilding, etching, medal making, various casting methods for vessels and large bronze figures, and furnace construction. Chapters present step-by-step procedures, material preparations, tool use, and formulas for chemical treatments and colours. Technical anecdotes and illustrative examples appear throughout, conveying common workshop problems and their solutions in an informal, spoken-register voice. The work functions as both a craftsman's handbook and a record of traditional techniques and workshop practice.

CHAPTER XXX. HOW TO MAKE THE WAX FOR GILDING.

Take five ounces of new wax, half an ounce of red chalk (that is to say, red stone chalk for drawing[184]), half an ounce of Roman vitriol,[185] three pennyweights[186] of feretto di spagna,[187] that is of the weight of a ducat, or one-eighth of an ounce, or it may be a bit less, half an ounce of verdigris, & three pennyweights of borax. Mix all these things together and melt them with the wax, & apply them as above described. After this, when the wax is cleaned off, you can give it the colouring that follows hereunder.

FOOTNOTES:

[184] Lapis rosso da disegnare; French, ‘sanguine.’

[185] Vitriouolo romano: sulphate of iron.

[186] Denari.

[187] Possibly calcined sulphate of iron; French, ‘ferret.’