The Golden Line
In this report we are going to look at the occurrence and frequency of a broad gilt line on the front of card-mounted photographs, particularly CDVs, but occasionally also on cabinet cards.
The use of ‘gilt’ or gold-coloring on cards was not uncommon, and you should not confuse some of the other uses, particularly gilt-edges, with the golden line we refer to here. Some cards have a beveled edge (cut at an angle so it is visible from the front), and when those edges are gilt they give an appearance similar to the golden line we are talking about.
The main characteristics of the golden line are that it is wide - typically .08 inch (2 mm) on a CDV, and a bit wider on cabinet cards, .1 to .15 inch (2.5 to 3.8 mm), and it is on the flat front surface of the card, at the very outer edge (see the first illustration).