Amber Collection at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Elzbieta Mierzwinska*

FOTO GALLERY Click to enlarge

Established in 1852, the London-based Victoria & Albert Museum is one of the largest art museums in the world, with 4.5 million exhibits. The world class compendium contains collections of applied and decorative art which cover a period of 3 thousand years, from the oldest civilisations of the East up until the present. The leading collections include: the art of Asia , Ceramics, Furniture, Glass, Metalwork, Paintings and Drawings, Sculpture, Textiles, Photography. The museum has a number of valuable historical amber items which, however, do not make up a separate collection. The majority of amber artefacts belong to the Department of Sculpture but some are also registered in the Metalwork or even the Furniture collection.

The most valuable pieces

The first amber exhibits were purchased as early as a few years following the establishment of the museum: a Gdansk crucifix from the end of the 17 th century, two mass ampullae from the late medieval period, supposedly made at the amber guilds of Lubeck or Bruges; shortly afterwards a two-storey coffer from mid-17 th century and a 17 th -century Gdansk reliquiary came as a donation.
Undoubtedly, two sculptures presenting alternative versions of the mythological “Judgement of Paris” by the outstanding Gdansk amber craftsman Christoph Maucher belong to the most valuable pieces at the V&A. The first one, purchased as early as in 1873, is a three-dimensional sculpture placed on a plinth engraved with landscape scenes; the second one (purchased in 1925) is low relief made in a single amber nugget. Both pieces present a typically Maucherian way of figure shaping: the stocky figures with hooked noses, typical facial expressions, expressive gestures and the favoured motifs: the figures of cupid and a dog, and decoratively curled acanthus leaves. A small receptacle with low-relief acanthus leaves and putti's heads may also have come from this artist's workshop.
The tall ( 121 cm ) storeyed altar made in Gdansk in the second quarter of the 17 th century is an example of splendid artistic class. It is richly decorated with amber sculptures and ivory reliefs with Old and New Testament scenes and the signs of the Zodiac.
A crucifix on a plinth, also a Gdansk production from the same period, stands out with its artistically exquisite reliefs in ivory depicting Passion scenes. This piece has been at the V&A already since 1856.
Out of other pieces of interest, we need to mention a large coffer with ivory reliefs which was donated to the museum's collection by Princess Louise in 1926, two games of trick-track from the beginning of the 17th century and two Königsberg goblets from mid-17 th century, one of which is set in gilded silver. Their bellies are decorated with reliefs with animals and fruit on one and the personifications of months on the other.
A cabinet from the beginning of the 18 th century, probably made by Gdansk artist Johann Georg Zernebach, is worth special attention. The signature of this little known artist was discovered on a very similar cabinet which until recently was in private hands in Munich but is now the property of the Amber Museum in Gdańsk.

Cutlery collection

The V&A has a rather large collection of the 16 th and 17 th century cutlery with decorative handles made of amber and bone. The most precious item is a set of a wide-blade knife and a two-tooth fork, with amber handles ending with decoratively carved ivory apexes encrusted with round amber pieces. This type of cutlery was manufactured in Königsberg towards the end of the 16 th and the beginning of the 17 th century. It may be that a set of three knives and a fork (part of a larger set) is also of Königsberg provenance: their handles are made of ivory, ebony and amber rings. Some of the cutlery in the V&A collections was made at Slupsk workshops; this group includes items with handles sculpted in amber, often with a human head on their ends or with eglomise inscriptions and engravings. A few sets of cutlery decorated with amber were made by English goldsmiths in London in the 1 st half of the 17 th century. All of the above items are registered at the Department of Metalwork.

Amber in England

At the beginning of the 17 th century, raw amber was imported to England in small quantities from the Baltic coast. It was used by goldsmiths to decorate metalwork. Finished amber products were purchased in Gdansk or Königsberg and collected by wealthy English families. The 1638 inventory of the collection of Anne, Viscountess of Dorchester at Gosfield Hall, mentions amber vessels, cutlery and candlesticks. The 17 th -century botanist and collector John Tradescant had amber items in his cabinet of curiosities, and so did William Beckford of Fonthill, writer and politician, in the Romantic era. Two amber coffers (or cabinets) were also a part of the Royal Collection. One of them was a gift from the Prussian court to Queen Caroline, wife of George II; the other belonged to Queen Anne and was a gift from Bishop of London John Robinson. Their current whereabouts are not known.
Amber collecting must have been rather fashionable in England later as well, because amber items obtained for the Victoria & Albert Museum since its opening have either been purchased in the domestic antiques market or – predominantly – donated by private English collectors.
Historical amber artefacts at the V&A come mainly from the Gdansk workshops, which clearly indicates the leading role of Gdansk in the 17 th -century European amber craft.

* The author is the Senior Curator of the Amber Collection at the Castle Museum in Malbork