Surf Wiki
Save to docs
general/jewellery-making

From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Manin gold chain

A Manin chain ( or ) is a type of Venetian jewellery made of tiny gold links. The name comes from the Italian word manina (tiny hand) because of the painstaking work required to form the links; it has also been proposed that the name refers to the Manin family, including Ludovico Manin, the last Doge of Venice. The chain is formed of special links made of tiny rings with a concave cross-section welded together. The rings were so small that 15 cm of chain could be made from 1 gram of gold, with about 20 rings per centimeter.

Historically, chains could be several meters long. They were worn wrapped as opulent chokers; women would divide the length of the necklace among their daughters, which is one reason that examples of very long Manin chains are quite rare.

History

The technique used to make Manin chains is believed to have been learned by Venetians from Byzantine jewelers in Constantinople in the 6th century. It involved using a glass bottle filled with water as a magnifying glass to see the links. [[File:Venetian Gold Chain.jpg|thumb|Venetian Gold Chain]][[File:Venetiansk guldkedja, 1880 cirka - Hallwylska museet - 109732.tif|thumb|Venetian gold chain, 1880s circa.]]

References

References

  1. (2003). "Venice Master Artisans". Grafiche Vianello srl.
  2. Azzarito, Amy. "Chains".
Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

jewellery-making gold-jewellery culture-in-venice
Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Manin gold chain — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report