"They were visible from both banks of the Nile, and when the sun rose between them as he came up from the heavenly horizon, they flooded the two Egypts with their dazzling rays."[77] These plates of metal were forged with hammer and anvil.

For smaller objects, they made use of little pellets beaten flat between two pieces of parchment.

In the Museum of the Louvre we have a gilder's book, and the gold-leaf which it contains is as thin as the gold-leaf used by the German goldsmiths of the past century.

Gold was applied to bronze surfaces by means of an ammoniacal solvent.

If the object to be gilt were a wooden statuette, the workman began by sticking a piece of fine linen all over the surface, or by covering it with a very thin coat of plaster; upon this he laid his gold or silver leaf.