ORNAMENT OF BACKGROUNDS
The ornament, as a rule, covers the background evenly, and is closely packed or fitted into its place.
Gold grounds are generally plain, sometimes bearing patterns in dots. These are indented in the surface by means of a point (p. [172]) which is not too sharp. It presses the gold-leaf into tiny pits, but does not pierce it. Gold grounds may be broken up into small parts by coloured chequers (p. [215]) or floral patterns. [p192]
Coloured grounds are, as a rule, more or less evenly covered with some form of decoration in thin white or matt gold lines, or in “solid” patterns in various colours (see pp. [202], [212]). A simple and pretty diaper pattern may be made by diagonal lines of matt gold, cutting up the colour into small “lozenges,” each alternate lozenge having a fleur-de-lis or little cross, or other simple ornament (fig. [119]).
A bolder design, in a broad white or coloured line, may be, as it were, woven through counterfeited slits in the letter (fig. [120]). This helps to preserve the general flatness of the letter, [p193] background, and ornament, and gives additional interest.
The mimic slits are made by black lines drawn on the burnished gold of the letter. Where the stem of the ornament comes over the gold, the size is cut away with a pen-knife; the part hollowed out is painted with white to cover any blemishes, and then painted with the stem colour, and outlined.