Hand Trades

After the partition of Poland, a retrogression took place in the economy and culture of Gdansk which, losing the rank of the main port of a large state, became a port of secondary importance of Prussia. Most of the amber workshops were liquidated, and the remaining ones changed into workshops for the mass production of necklaces of lathe-turned amber balls.

The fate of the amber industry was adverse until the end of the 1980s. A series of wars, isolation from the markets and, above all, the strangling of any initiative by the pro-Soviet regime, merely allowed a few amber craftsmen to drag out a wretched existence.

The situation changed radically in 1989, when Poland won its sovereignty and economical freedom. It was Gdansk that initiated the fight for political and economic changes, and it is difficult to say to what degree the siting of the amber center in Gdansk influenced the explosion in amber production. But the figures speak for themselves. In seven years the number of amber workshops rose from 500 to 6,000, and the value of their production increased over 50-fold. A few hundred trained artists create new designs and original works of art such as sculptures, furniture, and jewelry. Many of the workshops direct their efforts to the maintenance of those artifacts that remained and to create works based on the tradition of the “golden age,” that is, from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century.

Getting rid of the state control of silver (Poland is one of its main producers) allows Polish artists to make jewelry, vessels, and articles of everyday use, decorated with amber in an unheard-of range of designs and functions. The great number of individual workshops offers products suitable to any demand or purse — from simple souvenirs to great works of art.

Prof. Barbara Kosmowska-Ceranowicz, Museum of the Earth, Warsaw
Wieslaw Gierlowski, Amber Association of Poland, Gdansk
Duty Free International Review, 1998

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