Cannetille

Cannetille is a jewellery decoration technique using fine metal wire or narrow strips shaped into coils and raised ornaments. Rosettes and small conical forms can create a light, three-dimensional surface.

Appearance and use

It is closely related to filigree, but the term particularly highlights coiled, spatial decoration. Lang Antiques illustrates it on a gemstone-set gold cross dating to about 1830. Cannetille is often associated with jewellery of the 1820s and 1830s. That association is not a firm dating boundary: the Metropolitan Museum holds a French earring design with cannetille motifs dated about 1870 to 1900.

Examining an object

Check whether separate wire forms build up the ornament and compare front and back. Record flattened or damaged coils and possible later joins. Use the technique's name alongside the object's construction, metal testing and documentation. Cannetille alone establishes neither gold fineness nor a country of origin or individual maker.

Sources: Lang Antiques: Cannetille og dokumentert gullkors; The Met: fransk øreringstegning med cannetille.