 |
 |
|
|
|
 |
 These
objects were part of the so-called Knight's Set, which originally
included a case for ointments, a snuff box, two studs, a flask, a
jar, a toothbrush, and a clothes brush, all of which were made from
amber. These objects are from the collection of the Ekatarininsky
Palace, Saint Petersburg. |
|
|
|
For thousands of years people have carved beads, charms,
and religious objects from amber, often believing that it held special symbolic
powers. The Etruscans frequently used the substance when depicting gods and
goddesses; the Greeks referred to amber as "elektron" (the root of the modern
word "electricity"), or "substance of the sun;" and Roman legions were
dispatched to the Baltic in search of this organic material.
The oldest amber artifacts ever excavated are roughly hewn beads that date back
to 11,000 - 9,000 B.C., making amber the original precious substance. However,
despite the cultural significance of amber, large-scale production of objects
carved from amber did not occur until 3,400 - 3,100 B.C. Amber trade burgeoned
around 3,100 - 2,500 B.C., especially in the eastern Baltic region, where large
deposits of transparent amber, highly prized for carving, were found. By the
fourteenth century A.D., amber guilds were established along the Baltic coast.
Artisans from these guilds used the material's delicacy, transparency, and
striking variations in color to create decorative objects for use in religious
ceremonies and in court.
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, craftsmen perfected the
traditional methods of sculpting and relief carving in amber and established
two new techniques, encrustation -- the piecing together of intricate amber
mosaics that were subsequently glued to a piece of wood -- and verre
églomisée, in which ornamental designs, landscapes, and phrases were
engraved onto the back of a transparent piece of amber and often highlighted
with a piece of ivory or gold foil. Using these newly acquired techniques,
master artisans created decorative objects that often surpassed those of
previous centuries in both intricacy and size.
|
Made of deep red, transparent amber with a jade stopper, this bottle
features two large peaches on a branch, which stretches along one side. The
inner cavity has a very irregular wall and is remarkable in that the only
opening for carving it is a hole, one-eighth of an inch in diameter, which is
located at the top.
The surface of this ring, which was carved from a single piece of clear red amber, is extensively crazed. A small oval plaque of carnelian inscribed with the profile
of an eagle (a popular intaglio device from this period) is situated on the
widest part of the ring. Amber rings were popular between the reigns of Nero
and Septimius Severus (2nd century A.D.).
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Offered in 1716 as a gift from Prussian King Frederick William I to Czar Peter
the Great, the walls of this chamber -- consisting of twenty-two panels -- were
completely covered in a mosaic of more than 100,000 meticulously carved pieces
of amber. Among the elaborate carvings were intricate coats-of-arms,
monograms, and inlaid decorations depicting landscapes and mythological scenes.
In 1755 the chamber was installed in the Ekatarininsky Palace, outside St.
Petersburg, where it remained for nearly two centuries. The panels were
dismantled and hidden by the Nazis in 1942; they have never been recovered.
|
|
|
 |
 |
Since 1979, Russian craftsmen have been creating a replica of the Amber Room,
relying on large black-and-white archival photographs that were taken prior to
the Nazi invasion. Each piece of amber is carefully cut to the same shape and
thickness of the original, and is then polished and fit into the mosaic. Newly
created panels from the corner of the replicated amber room are on view in
AMBER: Window to the Past.
|
|
|
|
  |
|
