Water-Gilding upon Silver.
Take copper-flakes, on which pour strong vinegar; add alum and salt in equal quantities; set them on a fire, and when the vinegar is boiled, till it becomes one-fourth part of its original quantity, throw into it the metal you design to gild, and it will assume a copper colour. Continue boiling it, and it will change into a fine gold colour.
A Water which gives Silver a Gold Colour.
Take sulphur and nitre, of each an equal quantity; grind them together very fine, and put them into an unglazed vessel; cover and lute it well; then set it over a slow fire for 24 hours; put what remains into a strong crucible, and let it dissolve; put it into a phial, and whatever silver you anoint with it will have a gold colour.
To make an old Gold Chain appear like new.
Dissolve sal ammoniac in urine, boil the chain in it, and it will have a fine gold colour.
To give Silver the Colour of Gold.
Dissolve in common aqua fortis as much silver as you please. To eight ounces of silver, take four ounces of hepatic aloes, six ounces of turmeric, and two ounces of prepared tutty, that has been several times quenched in urine. Put these to the solution of the silver; they will dissolve, but rise up in the glass like a sponge; this glass must therefore be large, to prevent running over. Then draw it off, and you will have ten ounces of silver as yellow as gold.