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My friend James gave me these gilded bevelled letters in this frame a few weeks ago .They look 1920's /30's they are hand bevelled and either gilded by hand or chemicaly gilded, I still need to take a closer look.
The cast letters were given to me by Gary Godby a while back they could also have been angel gilded or kiln fired with gold chloride. Looking for other peoples thoughts on how these letters were handcrafted .
Thanks
Dave
those are real pretty Dave-
Its hard to see from the pics- but are those bevelled letters cut into the glass in reverse or stuck onto glass (surface mounted)?
Dave,
You have two different types of letters shown. The rounded dimensional letters are the type that were first shown to me by Rick Glawson as I entered his shop one day. He asked me how I thought they were made. I thought about the era of their production and what would have been available to make them.
I told Rick that I believed that letters were vacuum formed on a cast iron mold with numerous letter shaped cavities. A sheet of glass was placed over the letter cavities and then placed into a kiln.
As the heat turned the glass into a plastic state, the vacuum would be applied thus pulling the glass neatly down into each letter cavity. After the glass cooled it was cut into strips containing groups of letters. Then the glass strips were worked on a large roughing mill with water and carborundum grit. This grinding would grind away the original sheet glass into which the letters were formed. The mill worker would simply collect the letters as they were ground free from the sheet. Next they would be gilded and backed up for protection.
Rick questioned whether the letters were vacuumed, or whether they had been pressed. I felt that they had been vacuumed and upon closer inspection we actually could see and feel little "nibs" on the glass were it was slightly sucked into the vacuum holes drilled into the molds.
The flat letters were most likely sand blasted out of a sheet of glass and then the edges were beveled on wheels. Much like the small tight bevels that can be seen on Venetian mirrors. I'm sure that the manufacturer took out a patent on the procedure.
Back when these flat letters were made, they didn't have waterjets or diamond plated wheels. Hand drilling and sawing the holes would have cost too much. Sand blasting the letters out of the glass would have given the edges the beginning of the taper which was completed as a bevel. The inside beveled curves and small center holes are what amaze me, very difficult to achieve unless you have the skill and very small stone wheels. They did very good at keeping the bevel angle very even around the turns. The miters on the "X" and &'s are unbelievable. I would like to see the man do them in person.
Those are great examples of a past trade talent. I'm glad they survived.
Pat
Rick and I talked alot about the cast letters and I did some research which led me to the Rhona Company in NJ. They are long since gone but we experimented with kiln firing gold chloride onto flat glass with the same appearance, including color. My uncle used to do slump glass with gold chloride firing and that is the track we followed. They were sold in bulk much like the ready made gold leaf letters, can't remember the name of those. I have only seen photos of the flat glass letters and note that the color is more like leaf or angel gild. It would be interesting to know more.
By the way, there were a few buildings in dowtown Denver which had the cast letters glued to transoms for address and building names. From the back they looked like they were glued in place with hide glue? Then the back of the glass was simply painted black.
My guess on the adhesive method for these letters would be the same mixture that was used to adhere those slumped and gilded apothecary labels to the indented bottles.
That was a mixture of rosin and beeswax. The mixture can be adjusted according to the temperature in the area. ie: more or less wax.
The sign man would simply have a heat source under a metal plate. A stick of the wax mixture could be applied the the plate. The glass letter could be placed against the warmed adhesive and then placed in position on the glass where it would immediately chill and set. I believe that the bond would be quite strong and watertight, and more importantly be flexible enough to allow for expansion between the two glasses with solar heat and cloudy days.
Pat
You are right Danny. The "original" poor man's horizontal hot glue gun, with the added advantage of heating the object being applied = more working time.
Pat
PS it just might appear that I am not a man of few words.
A Wildwest Proverb: Don't waste time talk'n when you otta be shootin.
Denver Chapter of the Letterheads