Posted 2 years ago
SandyShores
(52 items)
Okay, so wandering around the attic again and found all this "gold dust" and not sure what it is or what the letter means that was with it.
I know my great grandparents came from Germany. I know they were in the art framing business in the US in the early 1900's. They went back and forth to Germany for art and made the frames here. This is obviously German, but I don't know if he bought gold to put in his paint to make gold leaf or what this is. Any clues?? What does the German say?
The last letter says "give them a trial please.." and "I can supply you cheaper than any New York importer..". So I assume he was trying out some new mettalics and possibly importing these. They appear to be samples of a new method according to the letter.
Depending on what's exactly inside the envelopes (metallic powders, I assume?) I'd guess they were meant to use (maybe with 'stencil' types of masking things) to create 'faux' gold-leaf borders, corner decorations, signatures, or otherwise accents to products of your great grandparent's framing business. (whether on the frames or the photographs themselves) Nowadays similar kinds of specifically colored 'powders' are still used (as additives to lacquer or whatnot) to make metallic appearing finishes (NOT to be confused with "powder-coating" sorts of paint currently common on more utilitarian often metal things, that requires a 'baking' part to its usage process but is otherwise similar in that a fine metallic powder is mixed with a liquid base finish to provide the desired result) which is often now referred to as a "mica powder" finish.
Thank you both. I don't know what I can do with it, but I appreciate you sharing some light on this.