Goldbeater's skin

Description

A thin, clear, strong film interleaved with Gold sheets for the production of gold leaf. Goldbeater's skin is prepared from the outside membrane of the large intestine of the ox. The intestine is cleaned, rubbed and stretched to form a transparent, perfectly smooth film. In addition to preparing gold leaf, gold beater's skin is used to repair vellum. It has also been coated on one side with BEVA to make a sturdy, transparent heat-seal tape.

Synonyms and Related Terms

baudruche (Fr.); pele de batedor de ouro (Port.); goudslagershuidje (Ned); goudslagersvlies (Ned);

Resources and Citations

• Matt Roberts, Don Etherington, Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books: a Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 1982

• Marie Svoboda, Conservation Survey Index, unpublished, 1997

• Art and Architecture Thesaurus Online, http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabulary/aat/, J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles, 2000