Presented in the Museum of Amber, the Branch of the Historical Museum of the City of Gdansk 20th November 2008 – 31st March 2009.
Rich amber traditions
For the centuries a legend of Gdansk has been created by outstanding handicraft works. In modern era cabinetmaking, goldsmithing and amber working made our city famous in the world. Gdansk – a trade, cosmopolitan and multinational city – gathered the most eminent artists. Their works, full of splendour, elegance and wealth, were perfect as diplomatic gifts for popes, tsars, sultans and caliphs and rulers of European countries.
In the workshops in Gdansk numerous amber works were manufactured, ordered by rich burghers, the gentry, noblemen, clergy and Polish kings. Amber works, worth being a part of the most distunguished collections, became a true mark of the city. They reached remote countries and their princely and royal courts. Even now the works of Gdansk masters can be found in the world museum and private collections. Before the war in the collections of the Stadt- und Kunstgewerbemuseum (City and Handicraft Museum in Gdansk) there were 36 works of ancient amber art from various historical periods. As a result of military activities the amber museum collections got lost. The
Museum of Amber in Gdansk has been trying to create from a scratch a collection testifying our dispersed cultural heritage. A particular emphasis is placed on the monuments dating back to especially important period for the history of Gdansk – the times of the biggest economy boom and the peak development of a culture of our city.
Georg Laue’s collection
In 2006 there appeared an offer by Georg Laue, an antiquary from Munich. A collection of such high class is put up for sale incredibly rarely. The collection has been gathered since the interwar years of 20
th century by Georg Laue’s father and grandfather. During this time it has become one of the biggest private collections of ancient amber art in Europe. In recognition for their collection a part of it was borrowed for a prestigious amber exhibition called “Bernstein für Thron und Altar”, presented from 5
th October 2005 to 29
th January 2006 in the
Vienna Museum of Art , and Georg Laue was given a function of a guest curator. Appearing of such unique objects on the antiques market constituted an unrepeatable opportunity. These objects suit perfectly a substantive program of the Museum of Amber. All exhibits are of the highest class, they bear features characteristic for Gdansk wares, such as: a great harmony of rare varieties of amber, combinations with ivory reliefs, a use of exquisite decorative techniques, nowadays forgotten. They represent various examples of amber objects – from sacred art, through functional art, to sophisticated diplomatic gifts, this way showing the abilities of Gdansk masters.
A collection of ancient art in the Museum of Amber
The exhibition presents a dozen or so objects which have been already acquired for the collections of the Museum of Amber, and the monuments borrowed from Georg Laue’s Kunstkammer collection, which the museum plans to buy next year. The means for buying the objects come from a grant of the City of Gdansk, and the project is funded partially by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. In three years an impressive collection of ancient art was created, consisting of 13 unique objects. Amber is an incredibly brittle and impermament material, when exposed to light and temperature it becomes weathered. Not many monuments of ancient art made of this material survived and that is why they have such high prices.
The most precious and the most expensive object in the collection is an amber cabinet signed “Danzig/28. Julius/Ao 1724/ Johan George-/ Zernebach”. There survived only a few amber works on which the masters left their names. In amber handicraft the objects were very rarely signed. The cabinet represents a group of exclusive gifts exchanged between royal and prince’s courts. Analogous cabinets are in the
Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Museum of Applied Art in Berlin. A purchase of the cabinet initiated a new scientific research in the history of amber art in Gdansk. A detailed signature of a previously unknown master enabled to find another amberman in the archives and deepened an interest in this subject among the researchers. It is also important that all the objects purchased from the Georg Laue’s collection originate from Gdansk. Admittedly only (as many as!) one object is signed, but all of them bear stylistic features characteristic for the Gdansk style, formed in XVII century. In the experts’ opinions the Gdansk provenance is indisputable. The works by Gdansk masters are part of the collections of the best world museums. Thanks to the purchase of this collection they will also be present in Gdansk, in Polish collections.
New exhibits
The most expensive new exhibit is the flirtation game. A value of this monument is certainly influenced by its size and number of elements constituting the game. In the most important museum collections in the world:
Hermitage ,
Tsarskoye Selo (Petersburg), Grünes Gewölbe (Dresden) there are very similar exhibits. Amber was very often a material used to make various, often forgotten parlour games, which were very popular at that time, and the products of this kind were typical for Gdansk workshops. In a prewar collection of the City and Handicraft Museum in Gdansk there was also a similar flirtation game.
The most precious, not presented previously object is a medallion with a low relief scene of Shepherds’ Bow attributed to Christoph Maucher, a famous Gdansk amberman, a botcher (a name used for all artists not belonging to a guild). Usually an attribution is made on the basis of analysis and comparisons with other works. It is also like that in this case. Thanks to archival materials we know that amber objects of this artist were ordered also by members of the City Council and they were devoted as diplomatic gifts. The object is characterized by a dynamic structure, a virtuosity of the smallests details and a very good state of preservation. The city lost priceless amber nature and art collections for ever. The new collection created in the Museum of Amber refers to the best traditions. Thanks to its sponsors: L. Kronenberg Foundation, Deutsche Bank and BRE Bank the museum managed to acquire extremely rare inclusions in amber for the nature collections. The aim of the management of this institution is to rebuild, even in a small part, a collection of ancient art. By the acquisition of the collection with great artistic value, the Museum of Amber significantly increased a national cultural heritage.
Educational and popularizing role of the ancient collection of amber in Gdansk cannot be overestimated. Thanks to a diversity of objects it is representative and in a great way illustrates a mastery of ancient artists. It demonstrates a virtuosity of workmanship and sensitivity as it comes to a choice of rare varieties. For modern artists such examples can be inspiring and they constitute a source of ideas. The collection of ancient art is the most precious part of the collections of the Museum of Amber. At present only the Museum of Amber, the Branch of the Historical Musem of the City of Gdansk has a collection of the objects connected with the golden amber era in Gdansk, XVI – XVIII centuries. Other museum collection of Gdansk have no objects as of this period.
See also:
How Amber Guilds Operated in Cities of the Baltic Coast
The Heyday of Artistic Amber Craft by the Baltic Sea
