Daily AncestorGilder
A gilder covered picture frames, furniture, signs, books and other objects with a thin layer of gold leaf.
Gilding was skilled, careful work. The gilder prepared the surface, laid on gold leaf with a soft brush and burnished it to a shine.
Gilders worked in frame shops, furniture works, bookbinderies and sign shops, often in cities. The leaf they used came from goldbeaters.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1850 to 1880 census
Chas. Roth, 34, Gilder, Frame shop
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Daily Ancestor. "Gilder." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/gilder. Last checked 2026-10-01.