GOLDSMITH, or, as some choose 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 mould, or beat out with the hammer or other instrument. All works which have raised figures are cast in a mould, and afterwards polished and finished; plates or dishes of silver or gold are beaten out from thin flat plates; and tankards, and other vessels of the kind, are formed of plates soldered together, their mouldings being beaten out, not cast. The business of the goldsmiths formerly required much more labour than it does at present; for they were then obliged to hammer the metal from the ingot to the thinness they wanted; but the flattening mills which have been latterly invented reduce metals to the thinness required, at a very moderate expense. The goldsmith makes his own moulds, and, for that reason, should be a good designer, and have a taste in sculpture; he ought also to know enough of metallurgy to be able to assay mixed metals, and to mix the alloy.