Casket of Brachert in the Amber Museum’s exposition

The casket was made based on the project of the famous sculptor Hermann Brachert and was considered lost within the Second World War. The Amber Museum had only black-and-white photo of it. The photo was made by sculptor's wife Mia Brachert, creator of illustrations for the book of Alfred Rohde "Amber. The German Material" (Berlin, 1937). The book included photographs of amber works of the 15–18th centuries from the Königsberg collection.

Today the casket belongs to the private collector. Now we can see it at the exposition section "Königsberg Amber Manufactory".

Information

The casket is a rare exemplar of the 1930s. It is in a wonderful state of preservation. The object was made at the State Amber Manufactory in Königsberg, the building of which still exists and was given to the Amber Museum to create a museum's branch after the object reconstruction. Exposition of the future museum will be dedicated to the history of the amber enterprise.

The State Amber Manufactory was established in Königsberg in 1926 and existed until the Second World War. The enterprise was the largest amber manufactory in the world.  The period of time 1930s–1940s is considered the second Golden age of the amber treatment art.

Project of the casket was elaborated by the leading designer and art consultant of the State Amber Manufactory Hermann Brachert in 1932. Many popular amber works were based on his sketches and entered the mass production at the manufactory.

Hermann Brachert (1890–1972) was an outstanding German sculptor and amber artist. From the late 1920s until 1944, he was an art consultant of the State Amber Manufactory in Königsberg, where he worked on design of amber items, creation of new models, various works and other sculptures from amber and other materials. Due to his efforts, the art of «Gold of the Baltic» working had risen to a new level of quality.

During the years of his artistic work, he created around 70 amber works and over 100 sculptures from bronze and marble. In 1991 museum of the sculptor was opened in Otradnoye (Georgenswalde).

Today his amber works form around the fifth part of the famous amber collection that was located in the museum of the Amber Manufactory in 3, Portovaya Str. It is the only large collection of the manufactory works that survived the Second World War, it is located in different German museums, as well as private collections. Works created by Hermann Brachert are estimated in several thousands of euro at the world market today.