Michel Redlin (verified from 1688), Amber court box and board with complete set of amber chessmen, North-east German, Gdańsk, ca 1700. Amber, transparent and cloudy, in part carved and engraved, backed with silver foil, wooden carcass, brass fittings, drawer lined with blue silk, underside with Augsburg brocade paper; Chessboard: 37 x 37 x 11 cm; Chessmen: king height 7 cm, pawn height 5.5 cm © Art Chamber Georg Laue

Published in: Laue, G .: Tresor. Treasures for European Kunstkammer, Munich 2017, p. 67, Fig. 43; Laue, G .: The Kunstkammer. Wonders are Collectable. Kunstkammer Edition, vol. 1, Munich 2016, pp. 52-53, p. 116, cat. No. 27, FIG 

This magnificent amber box and board with chessmen is one of the most impressive amber artworks dating from about 1700 in existence. The square carcass of the box, which is covered on all sides with amber panels of varying size and color in brilliantly colored marquetry, stands on four feet in the form of lions couchant. The edges are decorated with the flat-cut pieces of cloudy amber as well as oval and lozenge-shaped transparent amber cabochons, which are backed with gold foil and enlivened with hollow-cut engraving. On the chessboard square fields of dark red, transparent amber alternate with fields of yellowish cloudy amber. The artist also used these two sets of chessmen by color. Usually it is available in red and yellow. Harbor scenes, genre scenes, Emblematic representations and all sorts of animals are as depicted on the dark red cabochons and board fields. Small amber vases of fruit, from the corners of the chessboard, emphasizing the ceremonial appearance of the box. Two drawers at the end of the box. Stock photography Two drawers at the end of the box, one drawer for each color. The drawers pull out to reveal kings, queens, bishops, rooks, knights, and pawns, each piece lying in one of sixteen compartments lined with blue silk. one drawer for each color. The drawers pull out to reveal kings, queens, bishops, rooks, knights, and pawns, each piece lying in one of sixteen compartments lined with blue silk. one drawer for each color. The drawers pull out to reveal kings, queens, bishops, rooks, knights, and pawns, each piece lying in one of sixteen compartments lined with blue silk.

Comparable amber chess sets are very rare and the few that are extant have survived, as might be expected, primarily in public museums of princely origin: in the Green Vault in Dresden from the collection by Friedrich August I of Saxony (1696- 1733); in the State Hermitage in Saint Petersburg from the collection of Catherine II of Russia (at 1762-1796) and at Rosenborg Palace in Copenhagen from the Royal Danish Treasury. The Copenhagen amber chess set is the most important thing in the history of art, decoration and the design of the chessmen.

Attribution of the present amber box and chess pieces to the Gdansk artist in amber Michel Redlin is based on a , The overall appearance of the box is not the same as in the case of a box, but it is also the case in style to the manes of the lion feet. Michel Redlin is an artist in amber working in Gdańsk: at that time Frederick III, Elector of Brandenburg (r. 1688-1713, from 1701 on Friedrich I of Prussia), acquired several amber art works from the artist to send them to the Russian court.