[f. FILIGREE sb. + WORK.]
1. Work in filigree.
1773. Gentl. Mag., XLIII. 433. They [war canoes] are adorned with fine heads made out of a thick board, cut through like filligree work, in spirals of curious workmanship.
1848. Lytton, Harold, I. i. Doffing his cap, he took from it an uncut jewel, set in Byzantine filagree work.
fig. 1818. Hazlitt, Eng. Poets, iv. 96. The Rape of the Lock is the best or most ingenious of these. It is the most exquisite specimen of filigree work ever invented. It is admirable in proportion as it is made of nothing.
2. transf. Stone-work resembling filigree.
1790. Pennant, London (1813), 94. Over the cere-cloth was a tunic of red silk damask; above that a stole of thick white tissue crossed the breast [of Edward I.], and on this, at six inches distant from each other, quatre-foils of philligree-work, of gilt metal set with false stones, imitating rubies, sapphires, amethysts, &c.
1857. H. Miller, Test. Rocks, i. 38. Slim columns of an elder Alhambra, roughened with arabesque tracery and exquisite filagree work.
