How to tell a real gold rim from one that will wash off

Buyers ask us about gold rims more than anything else, and almost always the same way: "is it real gold?" It is the right question, asked slightly wrong. Almost every decorated rim on the market contains some gold. What separates a rim that lasts twenty years from one that goes patchy in a month is how much, and how it was fired.

The three grades you will be quoted

• Liquid gold, 10 to 12 percent. The standard for hotel and gift ware. Applied as a suspension, fired at around 800 degrees, bonds into the glaze. Survives commercial dishwashers.
• Bright gold, 5 to 8 percent. Thinner, cheaper, still fired on. Fine for retail and display pieces that get hand washed.
• Gold-effect decal. Not gold. A printed film with a metallic sheen. Looks convincing in a photo and fails the first thermal shock.

The price gap between the first and the last is large enough that a supplier quoting suspiciously low is almost certainly quoting the third while letting you assume the first.

Four checks you can do yourself

• Tilt it under light. Fired gold has depth and a slightly warm, uneven glow. Decal gold is flat and uniform, like foil.
• Run a fingernail across the rim. Fired gold is level with the glaze. A decal sits on top and you can feel the edge.
• Ask for the firing temperature. If the answer is vague, that is the answer.
• Wash a sample twenty times. We will send one free. This is the only test that settles it.

One buyer in Lagos ran the dishwasher test on three suppliers' samples at once. Two rims dulled. He has been ordering from the third for four years.

What to put in your purchase order

Do not write "gold rim". Write the gold content, the firing method and the wash standard you expect. A clear specification protects you and it also protects an honest factory from being undercut by a dishonest one.

If you want to compare, ask us for a sample of CE-0712-01 next to whatever you are being offered elsewhere. Side by side, in your own hand, the difference stops being a debate.