Progress in the use of gold alloys in jewellery depends on two main factors:

• The technical skills and experience of jewellery technologists.

• Increasing knowledge of the properties of gold alloys and of the principles underlying their behaviour not only in fabrication processes but also in a variety of other circumstances.

This paper is focused on the second of these factors and concentrates on corrosion mechanisms, the development of alloys with novel colours and the mechanisms of bonding of gold and its alloys to glass and to ceramics.

Author: W.S. Rapson