"It's made in small quantities but if Harrods called up, we could possibly do something!" The special jars cost PS7.50 for 120g and PS14.95 for 240g, with much of the cost come from the gold which is imported from Venice, supplied by small family firm Mario Berta Battiloro, the only firm of
gold beaters producing gold leaf by hand, using traditional hammering techniques to beat it into shape.
Sackler Museum, Harvard University Art Museums and the Morgan Library & Museum, convey the elegance of the esteemed art form and reveal the skills of the many artisans - calligraphers, paper makers,
gold beaters, illuminators, bookbinders, and metalworkers, to name a few - involved in the creation of the tools, the calligraphies and the manuscript folios.
For example, the production of metal pigments has a long tradition, developed from the
gold beaters' craft, which existed as long ago as 1000 B.C.