FILIGREE WORK, a kind of ornamental work in fine gold or silver wire, wrought deli cately, and generally more or less varied by the intermixture of grains or small beads of the metal, and of bands, strips or bars, to give greater strength. An immense variety of pat terns can be produced, the wire being made to assume the forms of arabesques, leaf-work, etc., the parts being joined together by gold or silver solder with the use of the blow-pipe. Work ing in filigree is one of the most ancient and widely-spread arts. Specimens have been ob tained from ancient Egyptian, Greek and Etrus can tombs, and in various parts of Asia articles in filigree have been made from the remotest times down to the present day, as in China and India. In the latter country the wire-work bears much resemblance to the old Greek fili gree. An exquisite frosted effect marks the surface of some of the Greek work. After the method of producing this frosting had been lost it was revived or rediscovered. Greek filigree work was especially fine during the 4th or 5th centuries. Among the Celts, Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians, excellent specimens of filigree were early produced, being employed in such articles as bracelets, ear-rings, brooches, etc.
Old Irish filigree work was of especially high quality, particularly during the 10th and •11th centuries. The Byzantine workers in filigree were also famous, and the influence of their work was widely felt in Europe during the Middle Ages, books, reliquaries, etc., being orna mented in this manner. At Venice, and in sev eral of the French and German towns, elegant specimens of this delicate art were manufac tured as early as the 12th century. In the 17th century the art was carried to its highest per fection in Italy. The Italian peasantry, as well as those of other countries, still produce filigree work for personal adonitnent; and the Malta filigree is world-famous. The Chinese filigree, made mostly of silver, has not the extraordinary delicacy of some of the Malay and other east ern work. Filigree objects of great beauty of worlananship are produced in the United States.