Historical Amber Artefacts in Swedish Museums

Elzbieta Mierzwinska *

GALERIA ZDJĘĆ Kliknij by powiększyć

Amber artefacts made in Gdansk and Königsberg in the craft's heyday from the 16 th to the mid-18 th century came to Sweden in a variety of ways. Some of them were ordered by members of the Royal Family from the master amber craft artists both in Königsberg (e.g. Georg Schreiber and Johan Kohn) and in Gdansk; documented sources confirm that amber items were sent to the Swedish court by Michel Redlin, the famous Gdansk guild master. A number of items were bequeathed in wills (chiefly from Denmark ). We cannot rule out, however, that many of the amber artefacts in Sweden come from the mass looting done by the Swedish army during the Thirty Years' War and the Deluge.



Today, the most significant Swedish collections of historical amber artefacts are kept in the following museums: in the Royal Treasury at the Royal Palace of Stockholm (Kungl. Husgeradskammaren), at Skokloster Castle, at the Royal Scientific Society in Uppsala (Kungl. Vetenskaps-Societeten) and at Gripsholm Castle ; smaller collections of amber artefacts are also kept at the National Museum in Stockholm and in the Royal Armoury. Archaeological artefacts are kept in the National Historical Museum in Stockholm and in the Archaeological Museum in Gothenburg.

The most valuable historical artefacts in the Swedish museum collections:

Treasury at the Royal Palace , Stockholm

- pitcher and bowl from the collection of Maria Eleonora, wife of Gustav II Adolf – outstanding pieces associated with the workshop of the famous amber jeweller Georg Schreiber of Königsberg (dated at ca. 1640), decorated with relief depicting allegorical and mythical figures and hunting scenes. The pitcher's handle and the rim of the bowl are also decorated with gold and enamel;

- two-storey coffer with relief decoration with mythological motifs and the personification of the four seasons (Königsberg, circle of Georg Schreiber, 2 nd quarter of the 17 th cent.). The finial has a sculpture of Triton sitting on a dolphin. This artefact comes from the collection of Queen Hedvig Eleonora (1634-1715), wife of Karl X;

- cup with lid with relief decoration with plant and monster motifs, signed by Johan Kohn of Königsberg (ca.1625);

- two pairs of large candlesticks of amber sculpted in relief, set in gilded silver. The larger candlesticks with a floral motif belonged to Queen Hedvig Eleonora. The second pair, with a relief decoration depicting birds and monsters, comes from the workshop of Johan Kohn of Königsberg;



Skokloster Castle

- mug with lid set in gilded silver, decorated with relief with animal motifs and a hunting scene. Made in Königsberg by G. Schreiber's circle in the 2 nd quarter of the 17 th century;

- two-storey coffer , richly decorated with ivory, made in Gdansk , late 17 th century;

- two crucifixes with spirally twisted stems, with ivory figures of Christ; made in the workshops of Elblag or Gdansk in the 2 nd half of the 17 th century;



Royal Scientific Society, Uppsala

- pair of oval mirrors in sculpted amber frames; made in Königsberg in the workshop of Johan Köster in the late 17 th century;

- coffer decorated with ivory relief, Gdansk , late 17 th cent.;

- trick-track game made of amber decorated with relief and ivory, Königsberg workshop from Georg Schreiber's circle, ca. 1620;

- candlesticks and a crucifix of amber and ivory from the early 18 th century;

- bibelots and small items of applied art e.g. scissors case, needle-case, small bowls and receptacles of various shapes, paper knife, magnifying glass, clothes brush frame, tokens for the game of flirt, miniature clogs etc.



Gripsholm Castle

- magnificent amber cabinet, most likely made in Gdansk , signed and dated: C.G.1712 , richly decorated with sculptures and relief with Biblical and mythological motifs.



National Museum , Stockholm

- mug with lid with relief decoration set in gilded silver, Königsberg, ca. 1640;

- salt cellar and inkwell from the mid-18 th century, associated with the workshop of Lorenz Spengler in Copenhagen;

- architectural construction , a one-of-a-kind amber artefact, a type of portico supported by seven small columns flanking an amber rear wall with nine oval medallions with ivory relief, unknown workshop, 2 nd half of the 17 th century.


All the high class works of art were made outside Sweden . However, the archaeological artefacts from excavations in the south of the country, especially the oldest of them, could have been made in domestic workshops. In the Neolithic, amber craftsmanship developed also in southern Scandinavia. The most interesting artefact from the period is a small human head, probably a talisman, currently at the Museum of National Antiquities (Historiska museet) in Stockholm. The Museum also has interesting amber artefacts from the Roman period, the Migration Period and the early Middle Ages. The medieval items may have been imported to Sweden by the Vikings, who often came to Wolin and Truso, where the earliest Baltic amber workshops were set up.

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