¶To die or coloure into the colour of brasse, or also to gylte Syluer, whiche sheweth better, and continueth longer.
IT is a thinge most certaine, that gold set vpon white yron or syluer, sheweth not so fayre as v∣pon brasse: for as sone as it beginneth to weare a litle, men may see the whitenesse of the yron Page 118 or syluer, whiche is not so soone secne vpon anye redde coloure. Therefore many practiciens, whan they wyll gylte anye woode, or other thinge, laye the bottome or grounde (not of redde, as the most part do) but of yelow to the intente that the golde shall not so soone appeare worne, as vpon the redde, and more vpon the white.
The sayed yellow can not be laide vpon yron or syluer: but leauing all this aside, whan you will gilt syluer, or geue a colour of brasse vnto yron, you shall do after this maner. Take verdet, or Verdegrise, Vitriol of Almain, and salt Armoniacke, at your discretion, but let the Vi∣triole be of a greater quantitie than the other thinges: put all this well beaten in poulder into stronge Vinai∣ger, letting it boile halfe an houre. And when you haue taken it from the fyre, while the substaunces be yet boi∣linge, you shall put in your yron that you will coloure, coueringe well the pot with his couer, and with cloth vpon it that it vent not out, and so let it coole, and you shall haue your yron well coloured, of a brasen coloure, and thus maye you gilte it with quicke syluer, as yf it were brasse. Esteme this as a goodly secrete, and also profitable.