Book:------Amber - Window to the Past
Author:----David Grimaldi
Publisher:--Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
ISBN:------0-8109-1966-4
Some of you may be aware of the amber exhibition held last year at the Natural History Museum in New York. At the same time as the launch of this exhibition David Grimaldi; chairman, associate curator and organiser of this display authored and published a new book on amber to compliment the show.
New books on amber, particularly in English are so rare that I have taken the liberty of reviewing the work here for those who are interested. My credentials are thin for this task. I collect amber and have an extensive collection of pieces with flora and fauna inclusions. I read and collect articles, books and any work on amber I can get my hands on. I have had work published myself in my other existence as a management consultant. So I have some idea of the demands made on writers and authors. However, with your forgiveness I submit this review for your interest; ‘tis a meagre a thing, but mine own’.
The book, ‘Amber - Window to the Past’ is immediately impressive both by its size and rich colour jacket. The cover shot at first sight might be some kind of artistic abstract picture, but is actually a photograph of several insects trapped in a piece Dominican Republic amber, a great attention grabber.
The book was printed and bound in Japan and this countries predilection for quality and precision is clearly present in this work. There are 230 illustrations, which include 115 colour plates. Amongst these are some old line drawings and pictures that have been published in other works. These seek to illustrate certain inclusions and methods of amber collection. They help contextualise and place amber in an historical setting and their presence is understandable. The majority of pictures are however entirely new, 95+%.
The photography is exemplary. Photographing amber myself I recognise the difficulties and problems one encounters, but here only the best and most lavish illustrations have been used. The pages simply ooze class.
The book is principle divided into two sections: Amber in Nature and Amber in Art.
The nature section begins by illustrating the origins of amber, how it came into existence, the types of trees that created it and is replete with interesting quotes and diagrams. Having already mentioned the graphical content of this work I will emphasise that nearly every page of text is supported with pictures and drawings that are comprehensible and useful. They helps immensely with understanding some of the processes and concepts dealt with in the work. There are the merest handful of areas where both facing pages are full of text with no graphical content. That in 208 pages is quite a feat.
The following chapter covers geographical distribution of amber deposits. A minor exception here is the Isle of Wight amber deposit just off the South coast of the United Kingdom. This is a rich if very small source of some of the most ancient amber in the world and yet other than a few papers published by Dr Edward A. Jarzembowski has received scant to little attention by the academic press.
The emphasis in this section is given to the major source deposits of amber, namely the Dominican Republic and the Baltic Coast though other areas are covered such as Mexico, Burmese, Japanese and the Middle East.
A marvellous picture on page 58 shows quite literally gigantic ‘dunes’ of crude amber being bagged after being extracted from the now defunct Bitterfield mine in Germany. This illustrates better than any list of figures the vast quantities of amber that must have flowed out of this general Baltic region. I have seen a very similar photograph taken of the same scene in the 1995 book ‘Stenen som flyter och brinner‘ authored by Ake Dahlstrom and Leif Brost of the Swedish Amber Museum. This is a book written in Swedish, so it has limited distribution. I am glad that Grimaldi has included this picture here, for those people for whom amber has a special attraction or interest, it is simple awesome, and I use this word carefully.
There then follows a rich selection of photographs illustrating the different types of inclusions that can be found within amber. Only the best and rarest are presented here and might give the casual reader the impression that this type of inclusion is present in nearly every other piece of amber ever found. Nothing could be further from the truth. These pieces are only the Creme de la Creme of the amber world. It is only when flicking through these pictures, time and time again and reading where they have come from that one realises the gargantuan task Grimaldi undertook in gathering together so many of these items not only for photography but also for display in the NHM exhibition.
As well as the normal photographs in this section there is also a range of electromicrographs. These illustrate the micro preservative qualities of amber rather than the macro aspects that the normal pictures do so well. This leads logically into a section on DNA and its presence within such well preserved inclusions.
This latter issue seems to have become a hot topic amongst many journalists, no doubt inspired by Crichton’s Jurassic Park and all the accompanying publicity. What frankly is more interesting I believe are the deductions and insights that can be drawn from the range of inclusions in amber about the ancient forests, their ecological workings, the animals present and the environmental conditions that existed. This too is also addressed in the book with a section on the ancient communities of the amber forests and woodlands.
A final chapter in this section addresses amber forgeries and is especially interesting showing the lengths to which some people have gone in creating fake or counterfeit amber pieces with large or rare inclusions. This chapter draws on an earlier article written by Grimaldi et al in the New York NHM Journal that specifically addresses amber forgeries. This earlier work shows in even greater detail the deviousness of some amber forgers. However, the best photographs have been transferred to the book, with the exception of a Tarantula allegedly found in Dominican amber but which the author was unable to tests for its authenticity. The lack of confirmation one way or the other no doubt accounts for its omission from this volume.
The second half of the book looks at Amber in Art. The initial part of this section begins by looking at the uses of amber through the ages starting at the Mesolithic Period. This whole section has a predominantly European slant. Here again are some unique illustrations and diagrams. The famous Hove cup from the Booth Museum in Brighton, United Kingdom is shown. It differs from many I have seen in the way the lighting has been set up to illustrate its translucence and the fine craftsmanship needed to have produced this piece. The text goes into some depth on the histories of amber and gives a broad though not heavily detailed account of its prominence in antiquity. It makes for good light reading without becoming bogged down in too many dates or claustrophobic details.
The segment on Medieval and Renaissance amber shows some examples of woodcut prints detailing how amber was obtained in the Baltic but only one 17-century piece of jewellery is actually illustrated.
The years leading to the beginning of this century are well structured. Ample information provides a rich description of the uses and the levels to which amber in art aspired during these years. Nothing is present on the contemporary use of amber in art and jewellery and would have been interesting.
As DNA in amber has become a focus for many people so too has the ‘amber room’, an 18 century concoction of the Prussian and later Russian nobility. In essence this was a room completely covered in amber which mysteriously went missing during the second world war. Russian craftsmen are now in the slow and laborious process of re-creating this masterpiece from old photographs and diagrams. Some of the first pictures I have ever seen of their efforts appear in this book and show the amazing level of opulence they have achieved to date.
A final chapter looks at the uses of amber in art outside the European context and is illustrated with examples of Chinese, Japanese and Asian artefacts.
Would I recommend the book? Absolutely, the work is of a nature that a laymen could sit down and read it from cover to cover without becoming lost or disinterested. Nor is this to say the work is of an all too fundamental or basic nature. I believe a fair balance has been achieved in this work with sufficient detail and lavish illustration to make this a must for any person keen or interested in amber.
The only comparable work available at the moment is George Poinar’s ‘Life in Amber’. This leans slightly further in the direction of individuals with a more than passing interest in amber and is perhaps written in parts with these kind of people in mind.
Grimaldi has excelled himself here with a book for all people who would like to know more about amber. I hope this is not the only book Grimaldi will write on amber and it is only the first of many.
Garry Platt.