What is the Golden Giant in the Tale of Two Cities?

The building in which Dr. Manette lives is also home to various businesses or trades. (The giant arm is "In a building at the back, attainable by a courtyard" - not actually in his hallway.)

When Charles Dickens states "church-organs claimed to be made, and silver to be chased, and likewise gold to be beaten by some mysterious giant who had a golden arm starting out of the wall of the front hall--" he is referring to a particular trade. For instance, "silver to be chased" is to work with silver. ("To “chase” silver is to ornament it, usually either by adding embossing or engraved work in relief, or by engraving its surface (OED)." from http://dickens.stanford.edu/tale/issue4_gloss3.htm... ) "Gold to be beaten" would refer to a goldbeater (From my dictionary, a goldbeater is "An artisan who beats gold into gold leaf.")

When he refers to this "mysterious giant who had a golden arm" he is telling you there is the figure of an arm, in gold, attached to the wall, to represent that tradesman's business. He is telling you what that figure looks like and conjures up the image of a giant who does the beating of the gold and, in doing so, pushed his arm through the wall of the place and there it's stuck.

This site http://www.dickensshoponline.com/shop/article_6_00... shows a picture of what the arm may have looked like.

This http://books.google.com/books?id=M7cNAAAAYAAJ&pg=P... has information about it.

So, he's showing you that tradesmen work in other parts of the building in which Dr. Manette has rooms and explaining some of the trades which surround him there. He uses the simile of the giant and the golden arm ("as if he had beaten himself precious") to give you a picture of what that image looks like (as though there were a giant who was the goldbeater who, in doing his job, had covered his own arm with that thin layer of gold foil and then pushed that arm from the inside of the building where he works to the outside).

I hope this explanation isn't as convoluted as I'm sure it is.

Take 2: It's not a golden giant, but the figure of a golden arm which looks like it belongs to a giant and is placed on the building to represent that a goldbeater conducts his business there. The image would be useful in drawing customers who have need of or a desire for that particular service. (Is that better?)