Research on mercury gilding on silver

Yousefi, Masoumeh; Mirfatah, Seyyed Ali Asghar; Mafi, Farzad

doi:10.22054/qjik.2021.45771.1166

Research on mercury gilding on silver

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Masoumeh Yousefi ¹

seyyed ali asghar mirfatah ²

farzad mafi ²

¹ PhD student in Archeology, Department of Archeology, Abhar Branch, Islamic Azad University, Abhar, Iran.

² Assistant Professor, Department of Archeology, Abhar Branch, Islamic Azad University, Abhar, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22054/qjik.2021.45771.1166

Abstract

Mercury gilding is a method used to decorate silver traces during the Sassanid period. It has features that make the gold layer firmly attached to the silver base and the gold layer does not detach from the work over time.
In this research, this question on has been raised as to what caused the gold layer to last on the silver surface?
The aim of this study is finding similarities and differences between the silver effect of the Sassanid period and the samples obtained from laboratory experiments,it has led to the knowledge of how to implement this method and also the reason for the stability of the gold layer on the silver surface.
For this purpose, mercury gilding has been recovered and performed with an old specimen as metallurgical examination to identify the structure. Then, the surface of the coating and how the gold layer adheres to the base metal (SEM) is further studied.
The results show that in this method, the gold coating is a type of penetration coating that causes the gold layer to adhere firmly to the silver base.

Keywords

Gold

Mercury Gilding

Sassanian

SEM

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