shell gold
Gold leaf that has been reduced to powder form by
grinding it with honey, which is then washed away.
It is used to produce powdered effects on leather
bindings, to repair or restore gold tooling, and
for gilding manuscripts. Very early gold "tooling"
of the Near East may have been shell gold, or
something like it, painted on the leather. The
name derives from the mussel shells it was once
stored in. Today it is available in tablet form.
See also: GOLD-POWDERED
BINDINGS . (152
, 236 )