Jewelry Pearls

Gold, one of the rarest of all metals, has been taken from earth for more than 6,000 years, yet the history of gold is difficult to trace. It is, in fact, impossible to set an exact date in terms of years when prehistoric man was first attracted to native metals such as gold, but ever since he discovered the yellow nuggets glistening in stream-beds and gravels, he has wanted to possess gold. Man has slaved for gold, fought for it, and tried to fake it, because ownership of this rare metal has always given man a sense of superiority and power.
Egypt was the richest gold producing area of the ancient world.

Great fields of gold existed from which Egyptian wealth was readily mined and though Egyptian mining techniques cannot be traced in detail, it is clear from surviving evidence that ancient civilizations learned the main principles of metallurgy and gold mining techniques from the Egyptians. But as we read accounts of the methods enforced in Egyptian gold mines during the reign of the Ptolemies in the 2nd Century B.C., the glory and power of Egyptian culture is tragically tarnished.

The great historian, Diodorus, wrote “…Kings of Egypt collect together and consign to the gold-mines those who have been condemned for crime, and who have been made captive in war… sometimes only themselves, but sometimes likewise their kindred… Those who have been consigned to the mines, being many in number, and all bound with fetters, toil at their tasks continuously both by day and all night long, getting no rest and jealously kept from all escape. Living in darkness, because of the bends and twists in the galleries, they carry lamps fitted on their foreheads. They contort their bodies this way and that to match the behavior of the rock. What they hew out they throw down on the floor-all this without pause, under the severe lash of an overseer… There is absolutely no consideration nor relaxation for sick or maimed, for aged man or weak woman; all are forced to labor at their tasks until they die, worn out by misery, amid their toil…”

Diodorus summarized the story of gold when he said, “Nature herself makes it clear that the production of gold is laborious, the guarding of it difficult, the zest for it very great, and its use balanced between pleasure and pain.”

Gold is a soft lustrous metal, yellow in color, highly ductile, and remarkably malleable. Because of these innate characteristics, gold can be worked into any object, no matter how delicate or massive, and once formed into a work of art, does not tarnish or corrode and is virtually indestructible under natural conditions.

Gold is so highly ductile that one grain can be drawn into a fine wire measuring 600 feet long, and one ounce of gold can be drawn into a thread that will extend fifty miles. These fine threads, woven into cloth or combined with gossamer silk, create glorious golden textiles.

Even when cold, gold is so malleable it can be hammered into incredibly thin ‘leaves.’ Hundreds of years ago, Pliny the Elder recorded that an ounce of gold could be beaten into 750 leaves, measuring 4 fingers each way. Methods of hammering gold have been so improved through the years that today, a troy ounce (the accepted measure of gold) can be beaten into a film I/282,000th of an inch thick that would cover approximately 100 square feet and show light through it.

Delicate leaves of so-called ‘gold tissue’ have always been protected by placing very thin sheets of paper between the folds; from this usage, the common term tissue paper has evolved.

Gold, being nearly as soft as lead to be workable must be alloyed with another metal, so the term carat is used to indicate the quantity of pure gold in alloy. A carat is 1/24 of the total weight. If a piece of gold is marked” 18 carats,” it means eighteen parts pure gold to 6 parts of the alloying metal, and so on down the scale.

Copper and silver are the most commonly used alloys with gold, but today, goldsmiths use various alloys to produce gold of varying colors to enhance jewelry or other golden objects.

White gold is alloyed with silver. Red gold is created by using copper.

Green gold is due to an admixture of silver. Blue gold contains iron.

Purple gold, a modern color, is created by alloying gold with aluminum.

Leave a Reply