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Filigree (also less commonly spelled filagree, and formerly written filigrann or filigrene) is a form of intricate metalwork used in jewellery and other small forms of metalwork.
In jewellery, it is usually of gold and silver, made with tiny beads or twisted threads, or both in combination, soldered together or to the surface of an object of the same metal and arranged in artistic motifs. It often suggests lace and remains popular in Indian and other Asian metalwork. It was popular as well in Italian, French and Portuguese metalwork from 1660 to the late 19th century. It should not be confused with ajoure jewellery work, the ajoure technique consisting of drilling holes in objects made of sheet metal.
The English word filigree is shortened from the earlier use of filigreen which derives from Latin filum meaning thread and granum grain, in the sense of small bead. The Latin words gave filigrana in Italian which itself became filigrane in 17th-century French.
jewellers employed wire, both to lay down on a background and to plait or otherwise arranged jour. But, with the exception of chains, it cannot be said that filigree work was much practiced by them. Their experience was in their cloisonné work and their molded ornaments. Many examples, however, remain of round plaited gold chains of fine wire, such as those that are still made by the filigree workers of India, and known as trichinopoly chains. From some of these are hung smaller chains of finer wire with minute fishes and other pendants fastened to them.
In ornaments derived from sites, such as Cyprus and Sardinia, patterns of gold wire are laid down with great delicacy on a gold ground, but the art was advanced to its highest perfection in the Greek and Etruscan filigree of the 6th to the 3rd centuries BC. A number of earrings and other personal ornaments found in central Italy are preserved in the Louvre and in the British Museum. Almost all of them are made of filigree work. Some earrings are in the form of flowers of geometric design, bordered by one or more rims each made up of minute volutes of gold wire, and this kind of ornament is varied by slight differences in the way of disposing the number or arrangement of the volutes. But the and petals of modern Italian filigree are not seen in these ancient designs. Instances occur, but only rarely, in which filigree devices in wire are self-supporting and not applied to metal plates.
The museum of the Hermitage Museum at Saint Petersburg contains a large collection of Scythians jewellery from the tombs of the Crimea. Many and in that collection are made of twisted wire, some in as many as seven rows of plaiting, with clasps in the shape of heads of animals of beaten work. Others are strings of large beads of gold, decorated with volutes, knots and other patterns of wire soldered over the surfaces.See the "Antiquites du Bosphore Cimmerien", by Gille, 1854; reissued by S. Reinach, 1892, which contains careful engravings of these objects. In the British Museum a sceptre, probably that of a Greek priestess, is covered with plaited and netted gold wipe, finished with a sort of capital and a boss of green glass.
Cuttack, of the eastern state Odisha, features traditional filigree work Known as tarakasi in the Odia language, most filigree work revolves around images of deities, though due to lack of patronage and modern design ideas, it is a dying art. Also noted is silver filigree of Karimnagar in Telangana state.
In the north of Europe, the Saxons, Britons and Celts were from an early period skillful in several kinds of ' work. Admirable examples of filigree patterns laid down in wire on gold, from Anglo-Saxons tombs, may be seen in the British Museum, notably a brooch from Dover, and a sword-hilt from Cumberland. The Staffordshire Hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver (estimated 700 CE) discovered in a field in Staffordshire, England, on 5 July 2009 contains numerous examples of very fine filigree described by archaeologist Kevin Leahy as "incredible".
Ireland filigree work of the Insular art is more thoughtful in design and more extremely varied in pattern. The Royal Irish Academy in Dublin contains a number of reliquaries and personal jewels, of which filigree is the general and most remarkable ornament. The Tara Brooch, in the National Museum of Ireland, has been copied and imitated numerous since the mid 19th century; Queen Victoria had a copy made in the late 1840s.Farley, Julia; Hunter, Fraser. Celts - Art and Identity. London: British Museum, 2015, p. 244. Carew, Mairead. " British Jewish leaders searched for the Ark of the Covenant at Tara". IrishCentral, 7 February 2017. Retrieved 28 July 2022 Instead of fine curls or volutes of gold thread, Irish filigree is varied by numerous designs by which one thread can be traced through curious knots and complications, which, disposed over large surfaces, balance one another, but always with special varieties and arrangements difficult to trace with the eye. The long thread appears and disappears without breach of continuity, the two ends generally worked into the head and the tail of a serpent or a monster.
The reliquary containing the "Bell of Saint Patrick" is covered with knotted work in many varieties. A two-handled chalice, called the "Ardagh Chalice" found near Limerick in 1868, is ornamented with work of this kind of extraordinary fineness. Twelve plaques on a band round the body of the vase, plaques on each handle and round the foot of the vase have a series of different designs of characteristic patterns, in fine filigree wire work wrought on the front of the repoussé ground.
Much of the medieval jewel work all over Europe down to the 15th century, on reliquaries, crosses, , and other ecclesiastical goldsmiths' work, is set off with bosses and borders of filigree. Filigree work in silver was practised by the Moors of Spain during the Middle Ages with great skill, and was introduced by them and established all over the Iberian Peninsula, hence it was carried to the Spanish colonies in America.
The manufacture spread over the Balearic Islands, and among the populations that border the Mediterranean. It is still made all over Italy, and in Portugal, Malta, North Macedonia, Albania, the Ionian Islands and many other parts of Greece. That of the Greeks is sometimes on a large scale, with several thicknesses of wires alternating with larger and smaller bosses and beads, sometimes set with , and mounted on convex plates, making rich ornamental headpieces, belts, and breast ornaments. Filigree silver buttons of wire-work and small bosses are worn by the peasants in most of the countries that produce this kind of jewellery.
Silver filigree brooches and buttons are also made in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Little chains and pendants are added to much of this northern work.
, crosses, , buttons* Elements of a German filigree button, made c. 1880 image from Victoria & Albert Museum jewellery collection and other personal ornaments of modern filigree are generally surrounded and subdivided by bands of square or flat metal, giving consistency to the filling up, which would not otherwise keep its proper shape.
Laser cutting and Laser engraving are other sets of innovations that offer precision and minimal material waste. Laser cutters use a beam of light to cut through sheets of metal making the end result very precise, hence ideal for creating matching pieces or symmetrical designs. Engraving, on the other hand works by vaporizing metal surface to create shallow, perfect lines and textures. It is usually used to add fine decorative details, names, or motifs.
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