GOLDSMITH, or, as some choose to express it, silversmith, an artist who makes vessels, utensils, and ornaments, in gold and silver.
The goldsmith's work is either performed in the
mould, or beat out with the hammer or other engine. Goldsmiths 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 flattening 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.
The goldsmiths in London employ several hands under them for the various articles of their trade: such are the jeweller, the snuff-box and toy maker, the silver-turner, the gilder, the burnisher, the chaser, the refiner, and the gold-beater.
Goldsmiths are superior tradesmen: their wares must be assayed by the wardens of the company of this name in London, and marked; and gold is to be of a certain touch. No goldsmith may take above one shilling the ounce of gold, besides what he has for the fashioning, more than the buyer may be allowed for it at the king's exchange; and here any false metal shall be seized and forfeited to the king. The cities of York, Exeter, Bristol, &c. are places appointed for the assaying wrought-plate of goldsmiths; also a duty is granted on silver-plate of sixpence an ounce, &c. Plate made by goldsmiths shall be of a particular fineness, on pain of forfeiting 10 l.; and if any parcel of plate sent to the assayers is discovered to be of a coarser alloy than the respective standards, it may be broken and defaced; and the fees for assaying are particularly limited.