Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/665

* FILIGREE. of contact by gold or silver solder and borax, by ih.' help of the blowpipe. Small grains or beads of the same metals are often set in the eyes of volutes on the junctions, or at the in- tervals, at which they will effectively sel off the wirework; in the perfect (Greek) Conn of I In- work, the gold ground was covered with infini- tesimal gold grains. The more delicate tracery is generally protected by framework of stouter wire. It is used for brooches, earrings, crosses, head ornaments, and other pieces of jewelry of a very light ami elegant character. This work is now chiefly done in Malta, India, Genoa, some Tuscan villages, the Ionian Islands, and some parts of Turkey. The technique of filigree was not unknown to Egyptian jewelers, but it was perfected by Greek art, and as until recently most of its examples were found in Italian tombs, such works have been wrongly called Etruscan, whereas they were really imported from Greece. The Greek filigree work of the golden age of the fifth and fourth centuries is probably the most beautiful jewelry ever made. The delicate frosting of the gold surface, produced by the sprinkling of fine gold grains, which is an essen- tial part of perfect filigree work, appeared to be a lost process after the decline of Greek art. The famous Roman collector, Castellani, rediscovered it, however, and executed many beautiful copies. The firm of Tiffany has more recently carried its perfection still further. Necklaces, tiaras, hair- pins, safety pins, earrings, rings, bracelets, are the principal classes of personal jewelry in the original Greek works. The Vatican, Louvre, and Metropolitan Museums have the greatest quantity of works found in Italian tombs, while the Brit- ish Museum has also a large number discovered in Greek lands. The latest Greco-barbaric forms are best shown in specimens from southern Russia, at Saint Petersburg and Kertch. During the period when the secret of soldering the gold frosting appeared almost lost, from the Roman period to modern times, that part of the technique was most popular which consisted of the use of wirework. But the secret was not lost, only the fashions had changed. In wire- work the Indian workmen seem to be the best heirs of the Greeks. They retain many Greek patterns, and work them in the same way, down to the present day. Wandering workmen are given so much gold, coined or rough, which is weighed, heated in a pan of charcoal, beaten into wire, and then worked in the courtyard or ve- randa of the employer's house, acceding to the designs of the artist, who weighs che complete work on restoring it, and is paid at a specified rate for his labor. Very fine grains of gold are methods of ornamentation still used. This work requires the utmost delicacy of hand, and is of extraordinary richness of effect. Passing to later times, we may notice in many collections of early mediaeval jewel work, reli- quaries, covers for the Gospels, etc., made either in Constantinople from the sixth to the twelfth century, or in monasteries in Europe, in which Byzantine goldsmiths' work was studied and imitated. These objects — though not entirely in filigree work — besides being enriched with precious stones, polished, but not cut into fai and with enamel, are often decorated with fili- gree. Large surfaces of gold are sometimes cov- ered with scrolls of filigree soldered on ; and corner pieces of the border of book-covers or the 607 FILIGREE. panels of reliquaries are no! infrequentl up of complicated pieces of plaited work, Dating wit! inci namel. Byzantine filigree work occasional lj tom set among o in the north of Europe, the ' loth. ere from an early period skillful i eral kinds of goldsmiths' work. Broochi other persona] oi i ml in England, crusted with enamel. ■ it b bordei or centres of filigree. The Irish filigree work is especially varied in design, and I highest pei feci ion in the ten! b and elevi turies. 'I he Royal I rish Academy in Dublii tains a number of such reliquaries and pi jewels, of which filigree i- the general and most remarkable ornament. Instead of fine curls or volutes of gold thread, the Irish filigree is varied by numerous designs, in which one thread can be traced through curious knots and complica- tions, which, disposed over huge surfaci s, balance one another, but always with special varieties and arrangements difficult to trace with the eye. The long threads appeaT and disappear without breach of continuity, the two ends generally worked into the head and tail of a Berpenl 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 cup,' has belts, bosses at the junc- tions of the handles, and the whole lining of the foot ornamented with work of this kind of extraordinary fineness. Much of the later me diseval jewel work all over Europe down to the fifteenth century, on reliquaries, crosses, crosiers, and other ecclesiastical goldsmiths' work, is set off with bosses and borders of filigree. Moham- medan damascene work must be carefuly dis- tinguished, but filigree in silver was practiced by the Moors of Spain during the Middle Ages with great skill, and was introduced by them and established all over the peninsula, where silver filigree jewelry of delicate and artistic de- sign is still made in considerable quantities. The manufacture spread over the Balearic Islands, and among the populations that border the .Medi- terranean, and continues all over Italy, and in Albania, the Ionian Islands, and many other parts of Greece. That of the Greeks i times on a large scale, with several thiol of wire alternating with larger and smaller bosses and beads, sometimes set with turquoises, etc., and mounted on convex plate-, making rich ornamental headpieces, belts, and breast orna- ments. Filigree silver buttons of wirework and small bosses are worn by the peasants in most of the countries thai produce this kind oi elry. Silver filigree brooches and buttons are made also in Denmark. Norway, and £ Little chains and pendants are added to much of this northern work. Beautiful specimens have been contributed to the various intern exhibitions. Seine very curious filigree was brought from Abyssinia after the capture of Magdala — arm-guard cups, etc. They are made of thin plates of silver, over which the wirework is soldered. The filigree is sub- divided by narrow borders of simple pattern, and the intervening spaces arc made up of many patterns, some with grains set al intervals. (in interest ha- hen fell in the revival of the designs of antique jewelry by Signor Castellani. He collected example- of the peasant jewelry st ill