Explorative Studies in 16th century silver refining recipes

When examining the alloy of several works Adam Van Vianen, one founders Dutch Kwabstijl, with X-ray fluorescence (XRF), a more elevated silver and lower bismuth percentage than commonly found in his contemporaries was detected alloy. We hypothesize that Vianen used an high as it is malleable, allowing him to achieve extreme deformation without formation cracks. Recipes would have been widely at time which describe production refinement silversmith workshop were chosen serve basis for making reconstructions silver. The Probierbüchlein (The Little Book on Assaying) by Calbus Freiberg selected first source recipes deal this topic. As second reference, well-known ‘Beschreibung allerfürnemisten mineralischen Ertzt und Berckwercksarten’ (Description Leading Ore Processing Mining Methods) Lazarus Ercker selected. Several assaying made are discussed here.