GOLDSMITH, or, as some chuse to express it, silver-smith, an artist who makes vessels, utensils, and ornaments, in gold and silver.
The goldsmith's work is either performed in the
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mould, or beat out with the hammer or other engine. All works that have raised figures, are cast in a mould, and afterwards polished and finished: plates, or dishes, of silver or gold, are beat out from thin flat plates; and tankards, and other vessels of that kind, are formed of plates folded together, and their mouldings are beat, not cast. The business of the goldsmiths formerly required much more labour than it does at present; for they were obliged to hammer the metal from the ingot to the thinness they wanted: but there are now invented flatting-mills, which reduce metals to the thinness that is required, at a very small expence. The goldsmith is to make his own moulds, and for that reason ought to be a good designer, and have a taste in sculpture: he also ought to know enough of metallurgy, to be able to assay mixed metals, and to mix the alloy.