Amber imitations - Glass

Gabriela Gierlowska

GALERIA ZDJĘĆ Click to enlarge

Glass is one of the oldest amber surrogates. When humans learned how to make glass and use it for their various needs, its functionality and the artistic effects in glass products made it the highlight of human clothing and environment.

Beads made of sparkling colourful glass found in Poland come from the Lusatian culture area, from the older phase of the Hallstatt period, i.e. 700-550 BCE. They would come to us from the south, along the River Odra to begin with, but mainly by means of the Amber Route , and from the east by means of the transcontinental route.

A cup made of opaque many-coloured glass from the 1 st century which was found in Poland in Dembe, Kalisz region “(...) is an example of a technique which imitates vessels made of semi-precious stones in glass .” So the features of natural stones were given not only to small jewellery but also to larger functional pieces. In antiquity and the early medieval period, only wealthy people, who played an important part in the life of the society, were able to afford to buy glass vessels. Therefore, it was variously shaped beads made in diverse techniques that were imported. The numerous Polish finds include beads:

• made of a tube of opaque yellow glass, known from the Golancz settlement in the Gryfice region, dated at the 7 th -8 th centuries,
• made of a glass tube divided into cylindrical segments with special tongs – the Toliszczek Treasure
• made of a two-layer tube, with the internal layer made of transparent, slightly brown glass and the external layer of a very thin enamel coating. On the outside, the bead seems to be made of opaque yellowish glass
• formed by cutting out hardened glass mass
• barrel-shaped and flattish-round beads made of two-layer (potassium-sodium-calcium-silica) glass decorated with gold plate
• barrel-shaped beads made of two-layer (potassium-lead-silica) glass which imitates gold-plated specimens, where a silver plate covered with a thin layer of transparent yellow glass was placed on the internal layer of transparent, slightly brown glasse.

The consolidation of the Polish state around the 10 th century CE with the resulting transformations in its economic structure and the overall development caused glass workshops to be established in Wolin, Opole , Kruszwica and Wroclaw. Glass jewellery was mainly made in Wolin – beads, rings made of sodium-lead-silica glass, and Opole – jewellery made of lead-silica unleached glass. The native production of glass jewellery made it accessible not only to the inhabitants of fortified towns or craft and trade settlements but also to the rural population. Archaeological research in the glassworks in Cicha Dolina near Piechowice, Jelenia Gora region, shows that “amber-coloured” glass was also produced there.

Glass beads, rings and bracelets are often found in cultural layers dated at the 2 nd half of the 13 th and the 14 th century; however, with the passage of time the number of decorative items in the cultural layers was gradually decreasing. Glass began to lose its function of clothing accessories and began to fulfil practical and decorative capacities in the human environment.

Glass as an imitation of amber
The developing amber industry has been experiencing a shortage of raw amber for quite some time now. This results in a market shortage of considerably sized amber products (including large amber jewellery) and in high product prices. These circumstances are conducive to the emergence of imitations which are sought-after as attractive by a certain group of customers.

It used to be like this in Germany : after World War I there was a resurgent demand for amber but the society was impoverished. Products made of Bakelite and resolan (phenolic casting resin) to imitate amber, cheaper and therefore more eagerly purchased, dominated the market, which influenced the development of this production sector to no small degree. The difficult situation in the amber industry forced the German government to solve the problem by passing a Law on Amber Protection in 1934. Amber circulating in the market had to be labelled, while Sections 1 and 2 provided as follows:

“The word amber or another compound word which includes the word amber or a trademark with the word amber, in the commercial traffic, may designate only natural amber or a product made of natural amber with no imitating additives.
Only the first seller holds the right to designate amber as such.
Only the manufacturer holds the right to designate a products as made of amber. The designating entity must provide their exact details.”

In commercial practice, it is worthwhile using designations and labelling which are as informative as possible, both regarding the product and the material which it was made of. This is not always the case, although it is the meticulous description that proves a company's reliability and builds customer trust. Glass imitations of amber are not too serious a threat, as the large difference in density and thermal conductivity between glass and amber prevents attempts to sell glass imitations as genuine amber products.

This does not mean, however, that they do not have any impact on the amber jewellery market: people who deal in fashion jewellery, including that made of glass, say that it sells much better if its colour is similar to amber.