Forms: α. 7–9 filigrain(e, fillagreen, (7 filagram, fil’gran, filegreen, filograin, 8 filagrain, -green), 8 filigreen, filligrane, -grean, -green, 8– filigrane. β. 7 philigrin, 7–8 philagrain, -green, -grin. [a. Fr. filigrane (in 17th c. often -gramme), ad. It. filigrana, f. L. fīlum thread and grānum grain.]
1. = FILIGREE sb. 1.
1668. Lady Chaworth, in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 10. The King of France hath lately made a closet which they csll a cabinet of cristall and philigrin.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 183.
| As if it had been wrought in filograin, | |
| More subtly fill’d and polish’d than the gin | |
| That Vulcan caught himself a cuckold in. |
1682. Lond. Gaz., No. 1721/1. Coco-nut Cups set in Fillagreen.
1713. Phil. Trans., XXVIII. 226. Their Embroiderers work in Filigreen very curiously.
1794. W. Combe, Boydell’s Thames, I. 90. Taste has run into the contrary extreme of frippery and filigrane.
1850. Longf., Blind Girl of Castèl-Cuillè, iii. 68.
| Touches the crown of filigrane | |
| Suspended from the low-arched portal. |
b. transf. esp. of architectural ornament.
1727. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Caramel, The Sugar thickens and … a kind of curious Filigreen or Net-work, will be form’d.
1762–71. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), I. 194. For airy towers of almost filigraine we have none to be compared with those of Rheims. Ibid. (1775), Lett. to Sir H. Mann, 22 April. Adam, our most admired, is all gingerbread, filigraine, and fan-painting.
2. attrib. = FILIGREE 2. Also filigrane-work = FILIGREE-WORK.
1680. Ashmole, Diary, 358. I received from the hands of Sir Robert Southwell, lately returned from Berlin, a gold chain with a medal, from the Elector of Brandenburgh. It is composed of ninety links of philagreen links in great knobs, most curious work.
1687. E. Browne, Travels through … Germany (ed. 2), 147. A curious Filigrane Handkerchief, and two fair Filegrane Plates brought out of Spain by the Empress Margarita.
a. 1689. A. Behn, Novels (1722), II. 194. This Case shall be, as near as I can, like those delicate ones of Filligrin-Work, which do not hinder the Sight from taking a View of all within.
1690. Songs Costume (Percy Soc.), 193.
| Of essence rare, and le meilleure | |
| From Rome, from Florence, Montpellier, | |
| In filgran casset, to repel | |
| When scent of gousset does rebel. |
1696. trans. Du Mont’s Voy. Levant, x. 122. A golden Sun of Filagram-Work, to receive the Holy Sacrament.
1710. Steele, Tatler, No. 245, 31 Oct., ¶ 2. A small Cabinet … in which were … several Filagrain Curiosities.
1715. trans. Mad. D’Anois’ Wks., 416. All in large Flaskets of Filagreen Gold.
1742. Mrs. Delany, Autobiog. (1861), II. 169. He sent the Governor a fine present in a large filligrane silver box placed on the back of a fine Moorish horse adorned with all manner of fine gold and velvet trappings.
1753. Hogarth, Anal. Beauty, viii. 48. Westminster-Abbey is a good contrast to St. Paul’s, with regard to simplicity and distinctness, the great number of its filligrean ornaments, and small divided and subdivided parts appear confused when nigh, and are totally lost at a moderate distance.
1786. trans. Beckford’s Vathek (1823), 67. Carathis was privately drawing from a fillagreen urn, a parchment that seemed to be endless.
1847. Ansted, Anc. World, viii. 144. Their edges appear like golden filigrane-work, meandering amid the pellucid spar that fills the chambers of the shell.
