GOLD-BEATERS, are artisans, who, by beating gold and silver with a hammer on a marble in moulds of velum and bullocks guts, reduce them to thin leaves fit for gilding or silverying of copper, iron, steel, wood, &c. Gold-beaters differ from flatters of gold or silver; as the former bring their metal into leaves by the hammer, whereas the latter only flatten it by pressing it through a mill preparatory to beating.
There are also TIN-BEATERS employed in the looking-glass trade, whose business is to beat tin on large blocks of marble till it be reduced to thin leaves fit to be applied with quicksilver behind looking-glasses. See FOLIATING, GOLD-Beating.