Object of the Day: An Antique Gold and Diamond Filigree Stickpin

The art of filigree is often associated with antique and vintage jewelry. Filigree—with its winding, florid lines, refers to a pattern of curving soldered metals—usually gold or silver.


Here, we have a late Nineteenth Century example of filigree in a fourteen karat gold stickpin accented by small diamonds. Designs such as this defined the jewelry of the late Victorian period when men and women alike sported delicate creations of precious metals and stones which reflected the preferred visual references to natural motifs.

Elegant and understated, designs such as this one are an interesting phase in the transition of jewelry design. The lines of such creations are the beginnings of the heavier, geometric and architectural creations which would begin to develop and mark the overall looks of the gems of the Edwardian period.