How Were Antique Filigree Rings Made?
Antique filigree wedding rings from the early 1900’s have become very popular in recent years. The term filigree is derived from Italian word filigrana, which is originally from the Latin word filum, meaning a thread of wire and granum meaning a grain or bead. Early practices of wirework jewelry and decorative items were created using small pieces of metal or granules for design. Filigree is the ancient form of decoration on metal ware created by shaping fine wire into delicate or intricate designs. These designs may be either openwork or backed work. The wire may be plain, twisted, untwisted or plaited. The metals used are generally gold, silver, platinum or bronze. Filigree usage may be tracked back to metal work from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Etruria, Greece and Byzantium. Antique jewelry pieces have been found embellished with enamel in ancient Greece, Hungary and Russia. There are four basic structural ways to create filigree. The first type is openwork, where the design does not have a
