gold candle sticks ( religious artifacts?)

[steyr223]

Anyone interested
My buddy is selling for $1500.00 for the pair
Not sure if there worth more to something religeous related
Or for the gold

If anyone has knowledge on these please educate me
The only info we could find was simular at $2300.00

Xrf readings--between 1/2% and 3/4%

 

[g_axelsson]

So it's gold plated then.

XRF only measures the surface. The reason it doesn't show higher amount is that it also samples the base metals below the gold plate. The sample volume for the XRF is bigger than the thickness of the plate.

The only way to get a close to representative number for gold content is to melt the metal and mix it well, then running the XRF on a fresh surface, for example by cutting the metal in half.
And by the way, percentages doesn't tell you much unless you have total weight too.

Göran

 

[4metals]

Buying something like this without seeing it for close visual analysis is a complete crap shoot. These are rarely solid sterling silver and most of them have a wax or lead filler, so the weight would be deceiving.

Now if it is for use as it was intended, likely candles on a church altar, that's a different story. But for recovery, not in my book!

 

[upcyclist]

And by the way, percentages doesn't tell you much unless you have total weight too.

And since it is plated, and possibly weighted as 4metals points out, your best measure of yield is actually [surface area] x [thickness of plating]. The surface area is really hard to figure out with such an ornate piece, but you could base it on the area of simple geometric shapes with the same dimensions and multiply it by 2 or more(?). I doubt you'd come up with enough gold content to justify the cost. It'd have to be some seriously thick plating to justify $1500. And if you price it for sterling content, it'd have to be over 7 pounds to equal spot price!

 

[UncleBenBen]

Is there a chance they could be fire gilded?

 

[steyr223]

Is there a chance they could be fire gilded?

Please elaborate
Thanks steyr223

I will find the weight they are atleast 7 to 10lbs each

 

[upcyclist]

Is there a chance they could be fire gilded?

Please elaborate

It's a chemical gilding process that uses mercury to create an amalgam. A lot of mercury. Eww.

 

[UncleBenBen]

Old process of plating that uses gold mercury amalgam. Amalgam is applied then fired to evaporate mercury. From what I understand, there will still be a percentage of mercury left in the plating.

I'm sure someone here can elaborate more, as I don't really know too much about it. Just wanted to put the thought out there 'just in case' that's what it is.

 

[upcyclist]

According to the Great Wikipedia, the amalgam starts with about a 6:1 (or 8:1) ratio of mercury to gold, is reduced to about 2:1, then the mercury is sublimed off. There would still be some mercury left, I'm sure. I'm not sure when fire-gilding was completely supplanted by electroplating over nickel.

 

[acpeacemaker]

Mid 19th century, mercury-gilding was slowly replaced by galvanic gilding.

 

[nickvc]

Fire gilding gives a superb finish but has major health issues, the mad hatter of story fame was so called down to the use of mercury in hats which poisoned their system sloŵly but progressively.
The last place I heard it was still been used was in Switzerland of all places but that was a few years back.

 

[UncleBenBen]

Mid 19th century, mercury-gilding was slowly replaced by galvanic gilding.

This is what made me wonder about them. Church artifacts can take a looong time to show much wear.

Just figured better safe than murcury poisoned!! :|

 

[steyr223]

Thanks guys
I am learning and it didn't cost an arm or a couple grams of gold like most of my education does,
This is always good

My friend says they weigh more like 15 to 20lbs (sorry he doesn't have exact weight)
And I probably should have mentioned they are mostly brass but copper also showed on the xrf

Thanks steyr223 rob