The operation by which the alloy is brought to this standard is termed quartation or inquartation, and consists in fusing the alloy in a cupel with lead and the quantity of fine silver or fine gold necessary to bring it to the desired composition.
The sulphur and litharge, or Pfannenschmied, process was used to concentrate the gold in an alloy in order to make it amenable to " quartation," or parting with nitric acid.