The following are tangentially related contemporary gold recipes. I have yet to find imitation gold recipes that include copper filings or that include orange peels, but I continue to search for more directly related recipes.
General gold recipes
MS 1793 in Biblioteca Casanatense in Rome of Simone de Monte Dante dela Zazera. Nov 1422
[3] To make gold in another way
Take [gum] ammoniac and grind it without water or anything else. Then take garlic juice and grind it with it. Next add a little bit of Armenian bole to it. Work with it. When this is done; huff on it and lay the gold on it
- compare to:<id>p079r_3</id>
<head>Making <m>gold</m> colored <m>bronze</m></head>
<ab>
Take six ounces of tin […], six ounces of <m>natural sulphur</m>, and <m>sal ammoniac</m>. Melt the <m>tin</m> in a spoon. When it is molten add <m>quicksilver</m> and cast in a line. Then crush all the drugs together in a mortar, and</lb>
Mayerne, Théodore Turquet de, Sir, 1573-1655.
Lost secrets of Flemish painting : including the first complete English translation of the De Mayerne Manuscript, B.M. Sloane 2052, Hillsville, VA : Alchemist, c 2001, p. 236
Ms. p. 109 recto
Gilding (235)
Concerning the trim of a picture frame that is done with an oil paint, gold paint or the base coat of the said trim is applied with some kind of oily paint like the residues from brush cleaning; because this washed out material is usually oily and to some extent has to be a red or a yellow or a dark color. When the said undercoating is dry the said gold leaf is applied and then lightly rubbed with a goose feather or other feather to remove the excess and loose material.
- compare to 75v
- <id>p075v_2</id>
<head>Gilding <m>wood</m></head>
<ab>First of all it is necessary to apply a coat of very clear <m>glue</m>; and when it is dry, you will apply a coat of <m>yellow gold</m>; and when this is done you will take <m>fig tree wood</m> and soak it for a while, and wash the place you want to gild, and cut your <m>gold</m> with a knife near where you will put it; and you must apply said <m>gold</m> with <m>cotton</m>, and if you can find some <m>fig tree</m>, take an <m>egg white</m> and stir it frequently.</ab>
Compare to To make bronze the color of gold
MS 1793 in Biblioteca Casanatense in Rome of Simone de Monte Dante dela Zazera. Nov 1422
[1] How to make a gold ground.
Take a fine, slaked gypsum, as much as the size of a nut, and grind it with a little bit of clear water. Then take Armenian bole as much as a chickpea or a bean, and grind this separately, and also with water. Having done this, mix them together, take some dissolved glue and add it. Next have a bit of candy or sugar and some earwax and grind it gently together. The glue must be so strong that the whole matter sticks a little bit to the porphyry stone when your grind it. Then you keep it warm above some hot coals. When you work with it you can add some glue so that it will be a bit fluid. Let the dissolved glue stand a few days so that it comes from the fire with better strength. Now you can work with it. When the work is dry, scrape it until it is smooth. Then wet it with clear water and lay the gold on it. Press on it when it is dry. If the gold ground would be too weak for you, distemper it: you can put a bit of glair in the water
- uses similar ingredients ochre= Armenian bole, gum = glue, alum = gypsum, - Adds sugar and earwax – however, these ingredients are just used as a surface upon which the gold is to be laid and there is no addition of Copper filings
- compare also 6r 'candi sugar'