Milanese. Filigree Work.

The plaiting of gold and silver jewellery was well-known to the ancient Etruscans. The ‘milanese’ technique, as it is called, was originally used for making chain-mail in the Middle Ages, and produces a kind of flat, flexible ‘carpet’. In our necklaces and bracelets this flat ‘chain-mail’ is rolled up to form a round tubular shape.

Bracelets and Necklaces ‘Made in Pforzheim’: world-famous for decorative precision engineering.

Pforzheim, in south-west Germany, has always been the leader in the art of machine-made decorative chains like bracelets and necklaces – considered in the trade to be the ‘highest art’ of jewellery production due to the complicated techniques needed for fitting together the tiny components of the chain. Just how complicated you can see by looking at the Milanese illustrations here.