History of gold and gold jewellery

Gold is one of the most sought after metals in the world. It still holds the top spot in ranking followed by silver and bronze. In the world of jewellery and sales record however, Gold has been bumped from the top by Platinum which has been known to exceed it in value. That is the main reason why gold fell out of good graces for a few years during the popularity of Platinum. Now, gold seems to be enjoying a comeback in the limelight as well as in the runways and fashions shows. It seems like gold jewellery is back again.

Since at least the middle of the 3,000 BC, gold has been one of the most important materials of jewellery.  Gold is precious to all human civilisations, because of its beautiful colour, and its rarity. God has been used in many ancient civilisations as form of currency. Till now, gold is still used as the base of any modern andy currency. It is very resistant to tarnish and most corrosive agents. In the meantime, the softness in the natural state of gold also made it very easy to work with tools. Gold has been used extensively in history.

The earliest sources of gold were alluvial: fine particles eroded from the rock, which were collected by panning the silt of stream and riverbeds. However, by Roman times open-cast and tunnel mining were practised in Europe. The status of gold as a very valuable metal has driven so many men to move to places where gold mining is heard of. This is known in the western world as the Gold Rush. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries great quantities of gold were brought from the New World, imported into Europe by the Spanish. It was subsequently discovered in California in 1848, in Australia in 1851 and in South Africa in the 1880s. At present, the largest producer of gold is South Africa, North America, Russia, Canada and Australia.

Until 1975 standards of purity in gold were often measured in carats (karats in the United States of America) with pure gold -seldom used today because of its softness - being 24 carats. More commonly found is 18 carat (75% pure) and 9 carat, which contains only 33 per cent pure gold. The remaining proportion may be made up from a variety of metals, which can contribute hardness and colour to the gold. In the Encyclopaedia of 1751-65, Diderot listed five colours of gold: yellow, which was pure gold; red, which was three parts gold to one part pink copper; green, which was usually three parts gold to one part fine silver; grey or blue, caused by adding arsenic or steel filings to the gold; and white, which he explained was really silver, sometimes with a small amount of gold added to soften its brilliancy. Over the centuries goldsmiths have experimented to create many other variants and subtleties of shade.

Gold's properties make it suitable for many techniques. One of the most intricate and ancient is Etruscan granulation, where minute grains of gold are attached without solder to a gold background, creating either a powdery surface texture or a precise pattern. During the Archaeological Revivial of the mind-nineteenth century this technique fascinated goldsmiths. However, it was not until the twentieth century that it was found that if the grains were held in place with copper carbonate, water and fish glue, on heating the copper fuses with the gold to create an invisible, solder-less join. An innovation of the late twentieth century is the gold 'clay' developed by Mitsubishi Materials. Fine particles of gold dust are blended into a putty that is modelled then fired at a high temperature, burning off the binding agent and leaving a pure gold form.

Today, gold is primarily used in the production of jewellery and is sold all over the world. The industry experienced a slight drop in popularity over a few years but is now seen back on the market.