filigree

filigree

, filagree, fillagree

1. delicate ornamental work of twisted gold, silver, or other wire

2. any fanciful delicate ornamentation

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Filigree

Ornamental openwork of delicate or intricate design.

Illustrated Dictionary of Architecture Copyright © 2012, 2002, 1998 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

filigree

Ornamental metal openwork of intricate design.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Filigree

 

a technique used in jewelry-making. Fine gold, silver, or copper wire (smooth or twisted from several threads and then usually flattened) is used to make ornamental openwork whose individual elements are joined by soldering or to make a pattern that is soldered onto a metal background. Filigree, which is frequently combined with granulation or enamel, imparts light and elegant decorativeness to articles.

In ancient times the technique was known in the Orient, Greece, Etruria, and Rome; it later spread to Central Asia, the Middle East, the Caucasus, the Balkan Peninsula, and Western Europe. Filigree first appeared in Russia in the ninth or tenth century. Russian filigree of the 12th and 13th centuries is noted for its superb quality; the 15th century was the golden age of Moscow filigree. In the 18th and 19th centuries filigreed objects were made in many of Russia’s artistic centers. In Soviet times the technique has been widely used by the art industry, for example, in the products made at the Krasnosel’skii Jewelry Factory in Kostroma Oblast, the Mstera Iuvelir Art Factory (since 1937) in Vladimir Oblast, and the Yerevan Jewelry Factory. In addition to jewelry, filigree is also used to make small openwork vases, glass holders, and miniature sculpture.

REFERENCES

Razina, T. M. Russkaia emal’ iskan’. Moscow, 1961.
Postnikova-Loseva, M. M. Russkoe iuvelirnoe iskusstvo, ego tsentry i mastera. Moscow, 1974.
Rosenberg, M. Geschichte der Goldschmiedekunst: Granulation, Frankfurt am Main, 1918.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.