Antique European Filigree: Hat Buckle 18th/19th Century Silver Filigree Schwabisch Gmund

Hat Buckle 18th/19th Century Silver Filigree Schwabisch Gmund.

A few notes on the production of Silver Filigree in Schwabisch Gmund.

I will come back to the subject in the future.

I am posting a few examples of the small scale filigree work of Schwabisch Gmund for reference.

Referred to in German as Filigran Schmuck

The production was vast and googling will bring up many examples.

Victoria and Albert Museum.

see - https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52957#0377

Height: 7.3cm Width: 7.1cm, Depth: 1.3cm.

There are no identifying marks but the techniques used on this buckle are unmistakably those used in Schwabisch Gmund in the 18th and 19th Centuries and probably earlier.

Victoria and Albert Museum.

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O139480/hat-buckle-unknown/

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Another very similar hat 18th/ 19th Century band buckle.

Silver filigree and Red Paste.

Height: 8.7cm. Width: 7.8cm Depth: 1.1cm.

Schwabisch Gmund.

Victoria and albert Museum.

Acquired by the Museum from a collection in Normandy, France in 1869 as a frame for a devotional picture.

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O382456/buckle-unknown/

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Hat with Silver Filigree Buckle

They say Schwabisch Gmund c. 1800.

Museums of the City of Regensburg

This image from -

https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/item/KBSI7OKPV5DKX3TAJF5ARBPPWDLAONBK

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18th/ 19th Century Three Dimensional Silver Filigree Clasp in two parts.

Schwabisch Gmund.

Width: 10.8cm Height: 4.0cm Depth: 2.9cm

Victoria and Albert Museum.

Similar workmanship can be seen on the Boulle work toilet mirror attributed to the Munich cabinet maker Johan Peuchwiser of c. 1740, particularly in the bosses.

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The town of Schwabisch Gmund has produced silver objects and jewellery since the 14th century. By the first half of the 19th century it was the main centre of production for small silver items in the region. The silversmiths specialised in popular and devotional jewellery in particular broaches, clasps, buckles, buttons, rosaries and crucifixes.

It was also a centre for the production of Jewish devotional objects, particularly highly the ornate filigree and enamel Besamim towers, although there was no local Jewish population.

Another industry which appears to have run in parallel with the production of the filigree is the manufacture of small scale enamel plaques.

I don't intend to go into the the subject of the production of smaller scale objects of jewellery in any great depth at this point, but I will no doubt return to in due course. Those here are included to give a flavour of the large quantities of goods manufactured and exported from Schwabisch Gmund throughout Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries and the various techniques employed.

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Early/ Mid? 17th Century Filigree and Enamel Casket.

Perhaps Schwabisch Gmund.