Decorative technique
Roman
guilloche around a scene with
Diana
the Huntress, late 2nd century AD, mosaic,
Bardo National Museum
,
Tunis
,
Tunisia
[1]
Guilloche
(
; or
guilloche
) is a decorative technique in which a very precise, intricate and repetitive
pattern
is mechanically
engraved
into an underlying material via
engine turning
, which uses a machine of the same name. Engine turning machines may include the
rose engine lathe
and also the
straight-line engine
. This mechanical technique improved on more time-consuming designs achieved by hand and allowed for greater delicacy, precision, and closeness of line, as well as greater speed.
[2]
The term
guilloche
is also used more generally for repetitive architectural patterns of intersecting or overlapping spirals or other shapes, as used in the Ancient
Near East
, classical Greece and Rome and
neo-classical architecture
, and Early Medieval
interlace
decoration in
Anglo-Saxon art
and elsewhere. Medieval
Cosmatesque
stone inlay designs with two ribbons winding around a series of regular central points are very often called guilloche. These central points are often blank, but may contain a figure, such as a rose.
[3]
These senses are a back-formation from the engraving
guilloche
, so called because the architectural motifs resemble the designs produced by later guilloche techniques.
Uncertain etymology
[
edit
]
The name guilloche is
French
, dating back at least to the 1770s,
[4]
and is often said to be called after a French engineer named Guillot, who invented a tool or turning machine. However no dates nor first name are provided for this shadowy figure, and many dictionaries seem suspicious of his existence.
[5]
History
[
edit
]
Engine turning
machines were first used in the 1500–1600s on soft materials such as ivory and wood. In the 18th century they were adopted for metals such as gold and silver.
[6]
[7]
Some accounts give the credit of developing tightly-packed engraved guilloche decoration to the
Nuremberg
glass-making dynasty of the Schwanhardt family in the 17th century,
[8]
using a wheel to engrave the glass.
Engine turning machines made of cast iron and heavy wooden bases, with precision machined surfaces were made until circa 1967 (e.g. Neuweiler und Engelsberger). Individuals continue the craft of making these elegant machines, but in limited quantities.
[9]
A Guilloche Machine was granted a US Patent in 1968 by Wilhelm Brandstatter.
[10]
The original assignor was a firm called Maschinenfabrik Michael Kampf KG. A photo of this machine can be seen at Turati Lombardi's history page.
[11]
In the 1920s and '30s, automobile parts such as
valve covers
, which are atop the engine, were also engine-turned. Similarly,
dashboards
or the instrument panel of the same were often engine-turned.
Customizers
also would decorate their vehicles with engine-turning panels similarly.
Guilloche
describes a narrow instance of guilloche: a design, frequently architectural, using two curved bands that interlace in a pattern around a central space. Some dictionaries give only this definition of
guilloche
, although others include the broader meaning associated with guilloche as a second meaning. Note that in the original sense, even a straight line can be guilloche, and persons using the French spelling and pronunciation generally intend the broader, original meaning.
[12]
[13]
[14]
Translucent
enamel
was applied over guilloche metal by
Peter Carl Faberge
on the
Faberge eggs
and other pieces from the 1880s.
[15]
In today’s terminology
[
edit
]
In consequence of the nature of the design, which is usually a series of lines that are, or look very much like they are interwoven into one another, any design engraved on metal, printed, or otherwise erected on surfaces such as wood or stone, that go in a similar style of constant wriggling that interlock ? or look like they are interlocking ? with one another, is referred to as guilloche.
Some of the more common ones are the following:
- Engraved (in metal, mainly sterling): in fine timepieces (mainly pocket watches), fine pens, jewelry charms, snuffboxes, hair-styling accessories, wine goblets etc. Examples of famous works of Guilloche are the engravings on
Faberge eggs
.
- Erected: on stone for architecture, in wood for styling, on furniture or molding, etc.
- Printed: on
bank notes
, currency or certificates, etc., to protect against
forged copies
. The pattern used in this instance is called a
spirograph
in mathematics, that is, a
hypotrochoid
generated by a fixed point on a circle rolling inside a fixed circle. It has parametric equations. These patterns bear a strong resemblance to the designs produced on the
Spirograph
, a children's toy.
Other names for guilloche
[
edit
]
The
engine turning
machine characteristic of guilloche is called by other names in specific uses:
The different types of the machines refer to different models and different times during the development of the engine-turning machine.
Gallery
[
edit
]
Engraving technique
[
edit
]
Ornament
[
edit
]
-
Assyrian
tile with a guilloche border from the North-West Palace at
Nimrud
(now in modern Iraq), 883-859 BC, glazed earthenware,
British Museum
, London
[16]
-
19th century illustration of multiple
polychrome
elements of
Ancient Greek architecture
, including a guilloche on the right, by
Jacques Ignace Hittorff
-
Ancient Greek guilloche on an
Ionic
column of the
Erechtheion
, Athens, Greece, unknown architect, 421-405 BC
[17]
-
Roman
guilloche on the base of a column of the Trajaneum from
Pergamon
, now in the
Pergamon Museum
,
Berlin
, Germany, unknown architect, 115-30 AD
-
Roman guilloche on the
Orpheus mosaic
from the dining room of a Roman house,
c.
200, natural stone and glass, Pergamon Museum
-
Neoclassical
guilloche on a wall in the
Neues Museum
, Berlin, by
Friedrich August Stuler
, 1843-1855
-
Neoclassical guilloche on the door of
Strada Grigore Cob?lcescu
no. 6,
Bucharest
, Romania, unknown architect,
c.
1910
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Kirkham, Tony (2024).
Tree: Exploring the Arboreal World
. Phaidon. p. 264.
ISBN
9781838667795
.
- ^
Markl, Xavier (2024-05-03).
"Technical Perspective: Understanding The Art of Guilloche Dials"
.
Monochrome Watches
. Retrieved
2024-06-17
.
- ^
"Guilloche", Osborne, Harold (ed),
The Oxford Companion to the Decorative Arts
, 1975, OUP,
ISBN
0198661134
- ^
Vocabulaire francois, ou, abrege du Dictionnaire de l'Academie francoise, auquel on a ajoute une nomenclature geographique fort etendue. Ouvrage utile aux Francois, aux etrangers, & aux jeunes gens de l'un & de l'autre sexe
, 1773
- ^
Entry for "Guilloche" in
Chambers Dictionary
, 1998; the
OED
record the word from 1842 in English, but do not give an etymology.
- ^
What kind of a machine did Faberge' use to engrave the gold under the enamel on his famous eggs and other irregular shapes?
Archived
2004-08-17 at the
Wayback Machine
by Peter Rowe.
- ^
Guilloche Enameled Luxuries: Engraved memories of a fanciful era
Archived
2017-01-08 at the
Wayback Machine
, Professional Jeweler Archive, March 2001.
- ^
"Schwanhardt", Osborne, Harold (ed),
The Oxford Companion to the Decorative Arts
, 1975, OUP,
ISBN
0198661134
- ^
"Argent Blue pens"
. Archived from
the original
on 2013-07-27
. Retrieved
2012-09-22
.
- ^
GUILLOCHE MACHINE US Patent No. 3,406,454
- ^
"Photo of Guilloche Machine"
. Archived from
the original
on 2016-03-03
. Retrieved
2013-06-01
.
- ^
The Century Dictionary
: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language
By
William Dwight Whitney
1889
- ^
Roman Pavements
by Henry Colley March 1906
- ^
The Anglo-Saxon Review
By
Lady Randolph Spencer Churchill
1901.
- ^
"eBay Guides - The Guilloche Enamelling Process and Charm Collecting"
. Archived from
the original
on 2008-07-06
. Retrieved
2007-07-23
.
- ^
van Lemmen, Hans (2013).
5000 Years of Tiles
. The British Museum Press. p. 17.
ISBN
978-0-7141-5099-4
.
- ^
Watkin, David (2022).
A History of Western Architecture
. Laurence King. p. 38.
ISBN
978-1-52942-030-2
.
External links
[
edit
]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Guilloche
.