FILIGREE (formerly Migraine, Migrant., Fr. /Ma•ano, from Lat. Mum, thread gronutn, grain: the old filigree work being a combination of these two elements). The name applied to deli cate wirework ornaments, usually of gold or silver wire, hvisted and plaited into spirals and other convoluted forms, combined lo form a sort of metallic lacpwork, and joined at their paints of contact by gold or silver solder and borax, by tlr 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 set off the wirework; in the perfect (Greek) form of the 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 and 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 Creek 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-barbarie forms are best shown in specimens from southern Russia, at Saint Petersburg and 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, according to the designs of the artist, who weighs 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 medheval 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, hut not cut. into facets, 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 panels of reliquaries are not infrequently made up of complicated pieces of plaited work, alter nating kV ith sprees incrusted with enamel.
Byzantine filigree work occasionally has small stones set among the ClIFSTS or knots. In the north of Europe, the Goths, Saxons, Britons, and Celts were from an early period skillful in sev eral kinds of goldsmiths' work. and other personal ornaments in England, were in crusted with ensinel work varied With borders or centres of filigree. The Irish filigree work is especially varied in design, and reached its highest. perfection in the tenth and eleventh cen turies. The loyal Irish Academy in Dublin. con tains a number of such reliquaries and personal jewels, of which filigree is 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 eompliea tions, disposed over large surfaces, balance One another, hut always with special varieties and arrangements diffieult to trace with the eye. The long threads appear and disappear without breach of continuity, the two ends generally worked into the head and tail of a serpent or 11 monster. The reliquary containing the 'bell of Saint Patrick' is covered with knotted work in many varieties. A two-handled ehalice, 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 dhcval 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 damaseene work must be carefuly dis tinguished, but filigree in silver was practiced by the Moors of Spain during the 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 ether parts of Greece. That of the Greeks is some times on a large scale, with several thicknesses of wire alternating with larger and smaller bosses and beads, sometimes set with turquoises, etc., and mounted on convex plates. 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 that produce this kind of jew elry. Silver filigree brooches and buttons are made also in Denmark. Norway, and Sweden. Little chains and pendants are added to much of this northern work. Beautiful specimens have been contributed to the various international exhibitions. Some very curious filigree was brought from Abyssinia after the capture of 'Alagdala—arm-guards, slippers, cups, etc. They are made of thin plates of silver, over whieb 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 at intervals. Great interest has been felt. in the revival of the designs of antique jewelry by Signor Castellani. Ile collected examples of the peasant jewelry still made in many provinces of Italy on extraordinary designs preserved from a remote antiquity. :Most of the decoration is in filigree of many varieties. It was in part through the help of workmen in remote villages, who retained the use of various kinds of solder, long forgotten elsewhere, that the fine reproductions of antique gold filigree have been so beautifully executed in Italy, and by Italian jewelers, and are now thoroughly ap preciated by all art-lovers. Ccinsult the authori ties referred to under JEWELRY.