speed-aging of gold tooling.....

[Cor Knops <knops@xs4all.nl>]

Hello      ,

I'm having a liitle problem which I like to share with respected
collegues in the field:

I've reconstructed the gold tooling on the back of a 18th century
very elaborated binding by means of digital photography, software
processing and etching of clich=E9s.

Now I'm doing some tests with the stamps and I'm not at all
satisfied with the color/brightness of the gold. When I compare it to
the original the new gold is much too glossy, shiny, blickering, new
and other superlatives you can think of. The color of the gold I
ordered was the most dull and dark they had, but still it is much
too "new".

Do you know of any method (physical or chemical) to "age" the
tooling a little ? I've searched every source I have but with no
result.... There seems to be a way to do it but this involves a
mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid (also known as
"koningswater" in dutch; so "kings-water" in english..... wonder
what he has been drinking....) but this is out of the question
because of the destructive effect on the leather...
Re-touching is out of the question also because of the complexity
and delicacy of the imprint...

So, I hope you know the trick to do this...

Thanks i.a.

Cor


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Knops Boekrestauratie
Conservation & Restoration of Books and Paper
Groenstraat 8
6151 CS Munstergeleen Netherlands
phone +31 (0)46 4200024
fax   +31 (0)46 4110180
email boekrestauratie@xs4all.nl
www   http://www.xs4all.nl/~knops/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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