Greek Jewellery
Jewellery-making Techniques
from Antiquity to Recent Times
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Jewellery-making techniques Gold is extremely laminable and can be hammered into very fine sheets, which can then be cut and suitably shaped for decoration with engraved or embossed motifs (figs 5,6,7 drawing 1). |
| Fig. 5 Detail of a gold wreath, showing the wonderful workmanship of the sheet gold to represent oak leaves (British Museum). |
| Embossed decoration (repousse) was made by hammering (figs 8,9). The ancient craftsman first drew the decorative motif on the sheet of gold, which was then placed on a bed of yielding material (piece of leather, layer of sand or pitch) and worked with appropriate hammers and punches, usually from the back. The repoussé ornaments thus created were then finished from the front with a punch. The tools used by the ancient craftsmen were similar to modern ones. In order to imprint repeated designs special dies of wood, stone or metal were made (figs 10,11, drawings 2,3). |  |
Drawing 1 Execution of intaglio and engraved decoration. |
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Another form of gold frequently encountered in ancient goldsmithing is wire (Eig.12). This was made from fine bars of the metal which were heated and then worked by hammering. In order to achieve diameters less than lmm the ancient goldsmiths twisted the wire and then rolled it through two wooden or metal plates until it was uniforrn in section (fig.13). Another version was to draw the wire through holes of ever decreasing size. When the desired diameter was acquired the wire could be looped to form a chain (fig.14, drawing 4). |
| Fig. 6 Ring with intaglio representation of Nike, 5th century BC. (Athens, National Archaeological Museum, XP.687). |
| Wire could also be twisted or worked with suitable tools into different shapes (drawings 5,6) and a wide variety of decorative motifs could be achieved by arranging the wires in different designs (filigree) (figs 15,16). |  |
| Fig. 7 Detail under microscope. Traces of the ancient craftsman's tool are clearly visible on the Nike's wing (Athens, National Archaeological Museum, XP.687). |
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Fig. 8,9 Two examples of hammered decoration from different periods, Minoan left and Hellenistic right. Characteristic is the parallelism in technique. |
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