FILIGREE

FILIGREE or FILLAGREE (Ital. filigrano; Lat. filum a thread, and granum a grain); a very delicate kind of ornamental work in gold or silver, wrought in the manner of little threads, or threads and grains intermixed. Filigree work is of Eastern origin, and was first introduced into Europe by the Italians. In Sumatra, manufactures of this kind have been carried to the highest degree of perfection, and yet the tools employed are exceedingly coarse and clumsy. These are generally rudely and inartificially formed from any piece of old iron. A piece of iron hoop suffices for making the wire-drawing instrument; an old hammer head, stuck in a block, serves as an anvil; and two old nails, tied together at one end, will suffice for a pair of compasses. The gold is melted in a piece of preceo or earthen rice-pot, or sometimes in a crucible of ordinary clay. In general no bellows are used, but the fire is blown with the mouth, through a joint of bamboo; and if the quantity of metal to be melted is considerable, three or four persons sit round the furnace, which is an old broken

quallée or iron pot, and blow together. At Padang, where the manufacture is most considerable, they have adopted the Chinese bellows. The method of drawing the wire differs but little from that which is used by European workmen. When drawn to a sufficient fineness, it is flattened by beating it on the anvil; and when flattened, a twist is given to it by rubbing it on a block of wood with a flat stick. After twisting they again beat it upon the anvil, and thus it becomes flattened wire with indented edges. The end of the wire is folded down with a pair of pincers, and thus is formed a leaf, or element of a flower, which is cut off. The end is again folded and cut off, till they have a sufficient number of leaves, which are laid on singly. Patterns of the flowers or foliage, in which there is seldom much variety, are prepared on paper of the size of the gold plate on which the filigree is to be laid. According to these, they begin to dispose on the plate the larger compartments of the foliage; for which they use plain flattened wire of a larger size, and fill it up with the leaves before mentioned. In order to fix the work, they employ a gelatinous substance made of the berry called boca sago, ground to a pulp on a rough stone. After the leaves have been all placed in order, and stuck on bit by bit, a solder is prepared of gold filings and borax moistened with water, which is strewed over the plate, when it is put in the fire for a short time, and the whole becomes united. This kind of work on a gold plate is called carrang papan; but when the work is open, it is called carrang trowse. In executing the latter, the foliage is laid out upon a card, or soft kind of wood, and stuck on, as before described, with the sago berry; and the work, when finished, being strewed over with the solder, is put into the fire, when the card or soft wood burning away, the gold remains connected. If the piece be large it is soldered at several times. In the manufacture of badjoo buttons, they first make the lower part flat, and having a mould formed of a piece of buffalo's horn, indented to several sizes, each like one half of a bullet mould, they lay their work over one of these holes, and with a horn punch press it into the form of a button; after which they complete the upper part. When the filigree is finished they cleanse it by boiling it in water with common salt and alum, or sometimes lime juice; and in order to give it that fine purple colour which they called sapo, they boil it in water mixed with brimstone. The manner of making the little balls with which their works are sometimes ornamented, is simple. They take a piece of charcoal, and having cut it flat and smooth, make in it a small hole, which they fill with gold dust, and this being melted in the fire becomes a little ball. They are very inexpert at finishing and polishing the plain parts, hinges, screws, and the like, being in this as much excelled by the European artists as the latter fall short of them in the fineness and minuteness of the foliage. The Chinese also make filigree, mostly of silver, which looks elegant, but wants the extraordinary delicacy of the Malay work. The price of the workmanship depends upon the difficulty or uncommonness of the pattern. In some articles of usual demand it does not exceed one-third of the value of the gold, but in matters of fancy it is generally equal to that of the metal.