Antique jewelry glossary

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Wire enamelling

A technique of decoration in enamelling by which the outline of the design is formed by twisted wire, not fixed to the base by soldering (as in filigree enamel) but held in place by the opaque coloured enamels that fill in the spaces.

It was developed in Transylvania and the neighbouring regions in the 15th century, and spread in the late Middle Ages to Venice, thence to the Abruzzi and Campagna regions of Italy.

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