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Fashion for amber in Germany Christel Trimborn*
Munich has the Hofbräuhaus, a place well-known to everyone. Not far away, under the arches of the Munich Town Hall in the famous Marienplatz, jewellery lovers can find something far more interesting, the Bernsteinladen, the world’s oldest jewellery shop. The coat of arms inside the shop proudly shows its date of establishment: 1884. The shop still remains a family business, which since 2004 has been joined with the famous Danish House of Amber, also a family business. “We sell rare and valuable amber from Baltic countries, such as Poland, Russia and Lithuania. Our amber collections have both traditional and current-trend jewellery,” says owner Ms Brigitte Peters, who has been working with amber for over 30 years. About 60% of the amber products offered here end up in the hands of tourists mainly from Asian and Arab countries. Amber’s new imageMany amber jewellery producers, designers and wholesalers have recently notices a significant change in the building of amber’s image and that of the jewellery made of it: as recently as 10-20 years ago it was not valued very highly and was considered to be a traditional and dull gemstone, bought usually as necklaces of polished balls innocuously set alongside each other. It was fairly recently that avant-garde artists rediscovered seductively shimmering amber to make contemporary jewellery collections for both women and men. Thanks to the use of contemporary working techniques, the fashionable colour palette which conforms to the current trends, and thanks to amber’s unique lightness, it can be used to produce truly attractive jewellery. Brigitte Peters of Munich’s Bernsteinladen confirms that her customers are buying more and more amber jewellery because it is very much a part of current fashion trends and therefore goes well with the apparel. “Amber perfectly suits the now fashionable autumn colours; its range of colours is so abundant that everyone can find something for themselves.” It is not without significance that the prices of amber jewellery still remain attractive, especially when compared to jewellery with precious stones, even though amber jewellery has grown in price by ca. 40% over the last 3 years due to the shortage of raw amber. Therefore, customers purchase many-piece jewellery sets, amber set in yellow gold, silver or stainless steel, in both contemporary and traditional design. Interestingly, the amber jewellery sold in German shops and galleries comes almost exclusively from Poland; it is estimated that Polish jewellery’s share in the market is as high as 99%. Germany itself produces almost no amber jewellery, although sometimes amber is the highlight of collections by well-known designers (e.g. Michael Zobel) and companies (e.g. Ehinger Schwarz). One of the best known amber companies in Germany is the Paul Peter Schula wholesale company of Lubeck, which offers a wide range of amber jewellery from many producers and designers. Just as other companies from the sector, P.P. Schula decided to certify their goods, so the customers can be sure that they are buying a genuine product. This is necessary, because the German market also has companies which sell imitations as amber products: “Not everything called amber is amber in fact,” warns German geologist and amber inclusion specialist Dr Wolfgang Weitschat of the Geological-Paleontological Institute, University of Hamburg. “Better and better imitations made of artificial materials and marketed as original Baltic amber are constantly appearing on the market.” Another problem is the lack of awareness on the part of the customers, for whom natural amber and real amber is usually the same.*Christel Trimborn is a journalist who specialises in jewellery and goldsmithing, Editor-in-Chief of GZ Art+Design and Solitaire magazines back to: reports on amber |
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