Antique jewelry glossary

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False filigree

A style of decoration on metal that is an imitation of filigree work. It has been made mainly either: by soldering ornamental wire to punch and then hammering it into a sheet of metal from the back or by casting a piece from a model that was already decorated with true filigree.

A somewhat different technique was used for decorating tunjos made as Colombian jewelry, where wax strands were extruded as wire and affixed to the wax model before the metal piece was cast.

From: An Illustrated Dictionary of Jewelry, autor: Harold Newman, publishers: Thames and Hudson