Histoire de la dorure et de l'argenture électro-chimiques

The rare first edition.
20th-century binding in the spirit of a period binding, in half red shagreen. Raised spine, blind fillets. Author and title gilt. Green wrappers preserved. Superb condition. Paper very fresh, except for the wrappers which have some darker areas.
Gilding as well as electrolytic silvering is a technique specific to the House of Christofle. Gold is present in the bath in the form of aurocyanide, silver in the form of shot. The piece, carefully polished and cleaned, is immersed in an electrolytic bath and connected to the negative pole. At the positive pole is placed the aurocyanide. Charles Christofle purchased the patents for electrolytic silvering and gilding in 1842 from Elkington. The work traces the technical aspects of the electrolysis process and relates the opposition from a certain Ruolz who contested the Christofle house's patent and claimed to have fathered it, but it turned out that his technique was different and did not achieve the same results. For 15 years, Christofle was the only one in France to produce objects silvered or gilded by this process, and permanently established the company in the world of goldsmithing and jewelry.