It is highly probable that in early periods metals were beat with a
hammer to thin plates or leaves, which were afterwards divided into
small slips by means of a pair of scissors, or some other instrument;
and that these slips were by a hammer and file then rounded, so as to
form threads or wire. This conjecture seems to be confirmed by the
oldest information respecting work of this kind. When the sacerdotal
dress of Aaron was prepared, the gold was beaten and cut to threads,
so that it could be interwoven in cloth[1243]. We are told also that
Vulcan, desirous to expose Mars and Venus, while engaged in their
illicit amour, repaired to his forge, and formed on his anvil, with
hammers and files, a net so fine that it could be perceived by no one,
not even by the gods themselves, for it was as delicate as a spider’s
web[1244]. These fine threads therefore were at that time first beat
upon the anvil, and afterwards rounded by a file, but were not drawn
out like our wire. I do not remember to have found a single passage
in ancient authors where mention is made of metal prepared by being
wire-drawn. The _æs ductile_ of Pliny was so called because it was
malleable, and could be beat into thin leaves; and he says “tenuatur in
laminas[1245].” In my opinion, works made with threads of metal occur
too seldom in the writings of the ancients, to allow us to suppose that
they were acquainted with that easy and cheap method of forming these
threads by wire-drawing. Wire-work is rarely mentioned, and wherever it
is spoken of, it appears to have been prepared on the anvil.
Such threads of the dearest and most malleable metal, gold, seem to
have been early employed for ornamenting different articles of dress,
but certainly not in so ingenious and beautiful a manner as in modern
times. It is probable that slips of gold were sewed upon clothes, and
particularly on the seams, as is still practised with lace; and perhaps
gold stars and other figures cut from thin plates of gold were applied
to dresses in the same manner, as is the case at present with spangles,
and perhaps they were only affixed to them with paste. People however
soon began to weave or knit dresses entirely of gold threads, without
the addition of any other materials; at least such seems to be the
account given by Pliny[1246]. Of this kind was the mantle taken from
the statue of Jupiter by the tyrant Dionysius[1247], and the tunic of
Heliogabalus mentioned by Lampridius[1248]. These consisted of real
_drap d’or_, but the moderns give that name to cloth, the threads of
which are silk wound round with silver wire flattened and gilded.
The invention of interweaving such massy gold threads in cloth is by
Pliny ascribed to king Attalus; but I consider it to be much older,
though I have found no certain proofs to support this opinion. I
conjecture that the cloth of Attalus, so much extolled on account of
its magnificence, was embroidered with the needle; for in the passage
where embroidery is mentioned by Pliny for the first time, he speaks
of its being invented by the Phrygians; he then mentions the cloth of
Attalus; and immediately after the Babylonian, which, as is proved by
several expressions in ancient authors, was certainly embroidered with
the needle[1249]. If I am not mistaken, Attalus first caused woollen
cloth to be embroidered (not interwoven) with threads of gold; and the
doubt that Pliny assigns too late a period to the interweaving cloth
with threads of gold is entirely removed. It appears that in the third
century gold was interwoven with linen, that linen was embroidered
with gold threads, or that gold threads were sewed upon linen, which
the emperor Alexander Severus considered as folly; because by these
means the linen was rendered stiff, cumbersome and inconvenient[1250].
It was not till a much later period that silver began to be formed into
threads by a like process, and to be interwoven in cloth. Salmasius and
Goguet have already remarked that no mention of silver stuffs is to be
found in the works of the ancients; for the passages which might be
quoted from Homer speak only, without doubt, of white garments[1251].
Pliny certainly would not have omitted this manner of preparing silver,
had it been usual in his time; especially as he treats so expressly of
that metal, and its being employed for ornaments, and speaks of gold
threads and embroidering with gold. Vopiscus, however, seems to afford
us an indubitable proof that silver thread was not known in the time
of the emperor Aurelian[1252]. This author informs us that the emperor
was desirous of entirely abolishing the use of gold for gilding and
weaving, because, though there was more gold than silver, the former
had become scarcer, as a great deal of it was lost by being applied
to the above purposes, whereas every thing that was silver continued
so[1253]; but it has been fully proved by Salmasius that silver threads
were interwoven in cloth in the time of the last Greek emperors[1254].
The period when attempts were first made to draw into threads metal
cut or beat into small slips, by forcing them through holes in a steel
plate placed perpendicularly on a table, I cannot determine. In the
time of Charlemagne this process was not known in Italy; for however
unintelligible may be the directions given in Muratori[1255], “de
fila aurea facere, de petalis auri et argenti,” we learn from them
that these articles were formed only by the hammer. It is extremely
probable that the first experiments in wire-drawing were made upon the
most ductile metals, and that the drawing of brass and iron to wire is
of later date. It is likewise certain that the metal was at first drawn
by the hand of the workman; in the same manner as wire is drawn by our
pin-makers when they are desirous of rendering it finer. They wind it
off from one cylinder upon another, by which means it is forced through
the holes of the drawing-iron; and this process agrees perfectly with
the description of Vanuccio[1256] and Garzoni[1257], as well as with
the figures in the German translation of the latter.
As long as the work was performed by the hammer, the artists at
Nuremberg were called wire-smiths; but after the invention of the
drawing-iron they were called wire-drawers and wire-millers. Both
these appellations occur in the history of Augsburg so early as the
year 1351; and in that of Nuremberg in 1360[1258]; so that, according
to the best information I have been able to obtain, I must class the
invention of the drawing-iron, or proper wire-drawing, among those of
the fourteenth century.
At first threads exceedingly massy were employed for weaving and
embroidering. Among the ruins of Herculaneum were found massy gold
tassels, the threads of which were wound neither round silk nor any
other materials[1259]. It would be of some importance if one could
determine the period when flatted metal wire began to be spun round
linen or silk thread, by which improvement various articles of dress
and ornament are rendered more beautiful as well as cheaper. The
spinning-mill, by which this labour is performed at present, is so
ingeniously contrived that the name of the inventor deserves to be made
immortal[1260].
It appears that the wire first spun about thread was round; and the
invention of previously making the wire flat is, in my opinion, a
new epoch in the history of this art. Three times as much silk can
be covered by flatted as by round wire; so that tassels and other
articles become cheap in proportion. Besides, the brightness of the
metal is heightened in an uncommon degree; and the article becomes much
more beautiful[1261]. The wire is flatted at present by means of a
flatting-mill, which consists of two steel cylinders, put in motion by
a handle, and as the wire passes through between them it is compressed
and rendered flat. These cylinders were at first procured from the
Milanese, and afterwards from Schwarzenbruck in Saxony; but since the
death of the artists in those parts who were acquainted with the secret
of making them, they have generally been ordered from Neufchatel. A
pair of them cost two hundred dollars. The whole art, however, seems
to consist in giving a proper hardness to the steel and in polishing
them. In the earliest ages wire was flatted with a hammer on the anvil;
and the broad slips were cut into small threads by women with a pair
of scissors. The process is thus described by Vannuccio and Garzoni,
without mentioning the flatting-mill which is now used for brass work,
coining money, and various other purposes.
Before I proceed to the newest inventions I shall add the following
observations. Of the wire-work of the ancients we have very few
remains, and these are to be found upon cast statues, on which one
cannot expect any fine wire spun or entwisted round other substances,
even supposing that they had such. In the museum at Portici, which
contains a variety of articles discovered at Herculaneum, there are
three metal heads, with locks in imitation of hair. One of them has
fifty locks made of wire as thick as a quill, bent into the form of
a curl. On the other the locks are flat like small slips of paper
which have been rolled together with the fingers, and afterwards
disentangled[1262]. A Venus, a span in height, has on the arms and legs
golden bracelets[1263] (_armillæ et periscelides_), which are formed of
wire twisted round them. Grignon found in the ruins of a Roman city in
Champagne a piece of gold thread which was a line in thickness[1264].
Among the insignia of the German empire is the sword of St. Maurice,
the handle of which is wood bound round with strong silver wire[1265].
The ancients, however, must have been acquainted at an early period
with the art of making gold-wire of considerable fineness, as they
used it in weaving and for embroidery. When surgeons were desirous to
fasten a loose tooth or to implant one of ivory in the room of one that
had dropped out, they bound it to the next one by a piece of fine gold
wire[1266].
The greatest improvement ever made in this art was undoubtedly the
invention of the large drawing-machine, which is driven by water, and
in which the axle-tree, by means of a lever, moves a pair of pincers,
that open as they fall against the drawing-plate; lay old of the wire,
which is guided through a hole of the plate; shut as they are drawn
back; and in that manner pull the wire along with them[1267]. What
a pity that neither the inventor nor the time when this machine was
invented is known! It is, however, more than probable that it was first
constructed at Nuremberg by a person named Rudolf, who kept it long a
secret; and by these means acquired a considerable fortune. Conrade
Celtes, who wrote about the year 1491, is the only author known at
present who confirms this information; and he tells us that the son
of the inventor, seduced by avaricious people, discovered to them the
whole secret of the machinery; which so incensed the father that he
would have put him to death, had he not saved himself by flight[1268].
Von Murr, however, has not been able to find any proofs of this
circumstance; and amongst the names of wire-drawers, which he met with
in the records of Nuremberg, it appears that there must have been no
Rudolf, else he would certainly have mentioned it. Doppelmayer[1269],
from mere conjecture, places Rudolf’s invention in the year 1400; but
Von Murr makes it older, because he found in the year 1360 the name
Schockenzier, which signifies a person who works at wire-drawing.
This art, it appears, was brought to the greatest perfection at
Nuremberg. Several improvements were from time to time found out by
different persons, who turned them to their advantage, and who received
exclusive patents for using them, sometimes from the emperor, and
sometimes from the council, and which gave occasion to many tedious
law-suits. We have, however, reason to believe that the finer kinds
of work, particularly in gold and silver, were carried on with great
success, above all, in France and Italy; and that many improvements
were brought from these countries to Germany. I have not materials
sufficient to enable me to give a complete account of the progress
of the art of wire-drawing at Nuremberg; but it affords me pleasure
that I can communicate some important information on this subject,
which was published[1270] by Dr. F. C. G. Hirsching of Erlangen, taken
from original papers, respecting the wire-drawing manufactory at
Nuremberg[1271], and which I shall here insert.
In the year 1570, a Frenchman named Anthony Fournier, first brought
to Nuremberg the art of drawing wire exceedingly fine, and made
considerable improvement in the apparatus used for that purpose. In
1592 Frederick Hagelsheimer, called also Held, a citizen of Nuremberg,
began to prepare, with much benefit to himself, fine gold and silver
wire, such as could be used for spinning round silk and for weaving,
and which before that period had been manufactured only in Italy
and France. Held removed his manufactory from France to Nuremberg,
and received from the magistrates an exclusive patent, by which no
other person was allowed to make or to imitate the fine works which
he manufactured, for the term of fifteen years. On account of the
large capital and great labour which was required to establish this
manufactory, his patent was by the same magistrates continued in 1607
for fifteen years more.
As this patent comprehended only fine work, and the city of Nuremberg,
and as works of copper gilt with silver or gold were of great
importance, he obtained on the 19th of March, 1608, from the emperor
Rodolphus II., an extension of his patent, in which these works were
included, and by which power was granted to him to seize, in any part
of the empire, as well as in Nuremberg, imitations of his manufactures
made by others, or such of his workmen as might be enticed from his
service. A prolongation of his patent for fifteen years was again
granted to him at the same time.
After the death of the emperor Rodolphus, his patent was in everything
renewed, on the 29th of September, 1612, by the emperor Matthias,
and extended to the term of fifteen years more. On the 16th of June,
1621, the Nuremberg patent expired; and the same year the family of
Held, with consent of the magistrates of that city, entered into
an agreement, in regard to wages and other regulations, with the
master wire-drawers and piece-workers[1272], which was confirmed in
another patent granted to Held on the 28th of September, 1621, by
the emperor Ferdinand II., agreeably to the tenor of the two patents
before-mentioned, and which was still continued for fifteen years
longer. On the 26th of September, 1622, this patent, by advice of the
imperial council, and without any opposition, was converted into a
fief to the heirs male of the family of Held[1273], renewable at the
expiration of the term specified in the patent.
It appears that in the fifteenth century, there were flatting-mills
in several other places as well as at Nuremberg. In the town-books
of Augsburg there occurs, under the year 1351, the name of a person
called Chunr. Tratmuller de Tratmul, who certainly seems to have been
a wire-drawer. In 1545, Andrew Schulz brought to that city the art of
wire-drawing gold and silver, which he had learned in Italy. Before
this period that art was little known in Germany; and Von Stetten
mentions an imperial police ordinance of the year 1548, in which gold
fringes are reckoned among those wares for which large sums were at
that time sent out of the empire. Schulz obtained a patent from the
council, but his attempt proved unsuccessful. The business, however,
was undertaken afterwards in Augsburg by others, and in particular by
an opulent mercantile family named Hopfer, who bestowed great pains
to establish it on a permanent footing. For this purpose they invited
from Venice, Gabriel Marteningi and his son Vincent, who were excellent
workmen and had great experience in the art. George Geyer, who learned
under them, was the first person who introduced the flatting of wire at
Augsburg; and he and his son endeavoured for a long time to monopolize
the employment of wire-drawing, and to prevent other people from
engaging in it near them. In the year 1698, M. P. Ulstatt, John George
Geyer, Joseph Matti and Moriz Zech obtained a new patent, and out of
gratitude for this favour they caused a medal to be struck, which
deserves to be reckoned among the most beautiful works of Philip Henry
Muller, the artist who cut the die.
In the year 1447 there was a flatting-mill at Breslau[1274];
and another, together with a burnishing-mill was constructed at
Zwickau[1275] in 1506. All the wire in England was manufactured by the
hand till 1565, when the art of drawing it with mills was introduced
by foreigners[1276]. Before that period the English wire was bad;
and the greater part of the iron-wire used in the kingdom, as well
as the instruments employed by the wool-combers, was brought from
other countries. According to some accounts, however, this art was
carried to England at a much later period; for we are told that the
first wire-making was established at Esher by Jacob Momma and Daniel
Demetrius[1277]. Anderson himself says that a Dutchman constructed at
Sheen, near Richmond, in 1663, the first flatting-mill ever seen in
England.
Iron-wire in France is called _fil d’ Archal_; and the artists there
have an idea, which is not improbable, that this appellation took its
rise from one Richard Archal, who either invented or first established
the art of drawing iron-wire in that country. The expression _fil de
Richard_ is therefore used also among the French wire-drawers[1278].
Of this Archal, however, we know as little as of the Nuremberg Rudolf;
and Menage will not admit the above derivation. He is of opinion
that _fil d’Archal_ is compounded of the Latin words _filum_ and
_aurichalcum_[1279].
To conclude this article, I shall add a few observations respecting
filigrane works and spangles. The first name signifies a kind of work
of which one can scarcely form a proper idea from a description. Fine
gold and silver wire, often curled or twisted in a serpentine form, and
sometimes plaited, are worked through each other and soldered together
so as to form festoons, flowers and various ornaments; and in many
places also they are frequently melted together by the blowpipe into
little balls, by which means the threads are so entwisted as to have
a most beautiful and pleasant effect. This work was employed formerly
much more than at present in making small articles, which served rather
for show than for use; such as needle-cases, caskets to hold jewels,
small boxes, particularly shrines, decorations for the images of saints
and other church furniture. Work of this kind is called _filagrame_,
_filigrane_, _ouvrage de filigrane_; and it may be readily perceived
that these words are compounded of _filum_ and _granum_. We are told
in the Encyclopédie that the Latins called this work “opus filatim
elaboratum,” but this is to be understood as alluding to the latest
Latin writers; for _filatim_ occurs only once in Lucretius, who applies
it to woollen thread.
This art, however, is of great antiquity, and appears to have
been brought to Europe from the East. Grignon informs us that he
found some remains of such work in the ruins of the Roman city
before-mentioned[1280]. Among church furniture we meet with filigrane
works of the middle ages. There was lately preserved in an abbey at
Paris, a cross ornamented with filigrane work, which was made by St.
Eloy, who died in 665; and the greater part of the works of that saint
are decorated in the like manner[1281]. In the collection of relics at
Hanover is still to be seen a cross embellished with this kind of work,
which is said to be as old as the eleventh or twelfth century[1282].
The Turks, Armenians and Indians make at present master-pieces of this
sort, and with tools exceedingly coarse and imperfect. Marsden extols
the ingenuity of the Malays on the same account[1283]; and articles of
the like nature, manufactured at Deccan, are, we are told, remarkably
pretty, and cost ten times the price of the metal employed in forming
them[1284]. This art is now neglected in Europe, and little esteemed.
Augsburg, however, a few years ago had a female artist, Maria Euphros.
Reinhard, celebrated for works of this kind, who died in 1779. In 1765
she ornamented with filigrane work some silver basons, which were
sent to Russia for the use of the church, and which gained her great
honour[1285].
Spangles, _paillettes_, are small, thin, round leaves of metal,
pierced in the middle, which are sewed on as ornaments; and though
they are well-known, it might be difficult for those who never saw
them manufactured, or read an account of the manner in which they are
prepared, to conceive how they are made. The wire is first twisted
round a rod into the form of a screw; it is then cut into single spiral
rings, like those used by pin-makers in forming heads to their pins;
and these rings being placed upon a smooth anvil are flattened by a
smart stroke of the hammer, so that a small hole remains in the middle,
and the ends of the wire which lie over each other are closely united.
I remember to have seen on old saddle-cloths and horse-furniture
large plates of this kind; but the small spangles seem to be of later
invention. According to Lejisugo[1286], whose real name I do not know,
they were first made in the French gold and silver manufactories,
and imitated in Germany, for the first time, in the beginning of the
seventeenth century. The method of preparing them was long kept a
secret.