The Art of the Goldsmith and Jeweller: a Treatise on the Manipulation of Gold in the Various Processes of Goldsmith's Work, and the Manufacture of Personal Ornaments, &c, &c, for the Use of Students and Practical Men

Abstract

THE work of the goldsmith and the jeweller, like that of many other craftsmen, has undergone a striking change of late years. Formerly the goldsmith was an artist making his own designs, and working them out with infinite patience and cunning, but seldom finding himself bound down to routine. He served an apprenticeship and was taught the various branches of the craft. Now that vast quantities of cheap jewellery of all sorts are manufactured, largely by the use of machinery, the workmen, even if something more than mere machine-minders, are engaged on some one special branch and learn no other. Such a system, of course, threatens the artistic side with extinction, and the establishment of technical schools and the production of such books as this one under review, revealing the mysteries of the ancient craft, become a necessity.