Finished in Gold, Not Cast in It: What That Really Means

Our work is described as finished with real 24K gold. It is worth explaining precisely what that means, because the alternative reading - that these are solid gold objects - would be absurd, and we would rather say so plainly than let the ambiguity do quiet work for us.

The Arithmetic

Gold weighs about 19.3 grams per cubic centimetre. A wall piece of any real size, cast solid in gold, would weigh more than the wall could hold and cost more than most houses. Nobody makes them. Nobody has ever made them.

Every large gold artwork you have seen, in a museum or anywhere else, is gold applied to a base material. This has been true since the Egyptians. Gilding is not a shortcut around solid gold. It is the technique, and it is thousands of years old.

What We Actually Do

The piece is built in metal first. The design is cut and formed, with the detail worked into the material rather than printed on top of it. That formed metal is the artwork.

The gold is then applied to that surface in layers, by hand rather than by bulk dip. Hand application is slower and less uniform than an industrial process, and that unevenness is the point - it is what gives the surface variation in depth and makes it read differently from different angles.

The gold is real, and it is pure. There is less of it than a solid piece would contain, and it is doing exactly the job gold has always done in art: sitting on the surface, catching light, and not tarnishing.

Why Gilding Rather Than Gold Paint

The honest answer is permanence. Gold-tone lacquer yellows and clouds within years. Applied gold does not oxidise, because gold does not oxidise. The surface you see now is the surface your grandchildren will see.

Why We Spell This Out

Plenty of sellers in this category rely on the customer assuming more than the description strictly claims. We would rather you knew exactly what you are buying, and bought it because the thing itself is worth having.