Goldwork

1620, Anonymous translator, The Novels and Tales of the Renowned John Boccacio, the First Refiner of Italian Prose, London: Awnsham Churchill, 5th edition, 1684, The Tenth Day, Novel 9, p. 466, […] with lighted Torches (because it was somewhat late) they invited the very greatest and noblest persons of the City, all the Rooms being hanged with the richest Arras, Cloths of Gold-work, Velvet, Silks, and all other rich Adornments […]

Laquer’d-ware should be without Specks, smooth, and of so shining a Black, that you may see your Face in it, the Figures in raised Work, and well done; the Bottoms, Sides, and Corners sound, and nothing chosen but what is useful: The Gold-work should not come off with slight rubbing; nor the Substance of Bowls, Basons, &c. be too thick.

His beard was closely shaved, his doublet reached to the middle of his leg, and the girdle which secured it, and at the same time supported his ponderous sword, was embroidered and embossed with gold work.

Then Jigmed gives me two rings, for my two sisters, one mounting a ruby, the other a turquoise, in rich Lhassa gold-work.

This dissolution of the art and artifacts of a whole culture to the crude denominator of bullion was especially ironic in view of the sheer multiplicity of use and image in pre-Columbian goldwork. No two figures are ever the same, and the range of imagery is as profuse as Colombian nature itself: alligators, jaguars, condors, deer, owls, lizards, macaws, and even hallucinogenic mushrooms.