Amber is a fossilized tree resin, formed in the Baltic part 40 to 60 million years ago. But it was in the mid-19th when the Baltic started to be very popular and fashionable. Our ancestors used amber for heat, and in the average ages it served as a currency. For the tribal Prussians inhabiting the Baltic Sea’s southeast shores around 12,000 BC, rubbing it was the best way to generate static electricity. During the 12th century, it was said to contain mystical qualities – amber worn next to the skin helped a person become closer to the spirits. In true crusader fashion, the Teutonic knights claimed Baltic amber as their own in the 13th century, yet they too failed to understand where amber was to be found and just how much there really was.

In 1854–55 and 1860 substantial amounts of amber were excavated near Juodkrantė on the Curonian Spit in Lithuania. Three separate clusters weighing 2250 tons in total were uncovered during the ‘amber rush’ to the sleepy seashore village, yet by 1861 the amber had dried up. Since

1869 amber has been excavated at the Yantarny mine in Kaliningrad (Russia), the place where most amber sold in the Baltics today actually comes from!

Treasure seekers trailed Juodkrantė’s shores once more in 1998, this time in search of the legendary Amber Room – a room comprising 10,000 panels (55 sq metres) of carved, polished amber given to Peter the Great by the Prussian king in 1716. For decades opportunists have been trying to track down the missing panels, which graced the Catherine Palace near St Petersburg until 1942 when invading Germans plundered the palace and shipped the jewels either to Königsberg (Kaliningrad) or, as the mayor of Neringa told the world in 1998, to the shores of the Curonian Lagoon, where wartime residents allegedly saw the SS burying large crates. Predictably, the search yielded few results.

The miracle of nature: Amber comes in 250 colors, ranging from green, pale yellow and black to brown or golden. White amber, contains one million gas bubbles per cubic millimetre. Some pieces sold are heated or compressed, combining pieces; others are polished (to test if a polished piece of amber is real put it in salt water – if it sinks, it’s a dud). Rubbing unpolished amber should yield a faint pine smell. Old fashioned ways of treating it include boiling in honey to make it darker, or in vegetable oil to make it lighter. Original, pieces with ‘inclusions’ – grains of dirt, shell, vegetation or Jurassic Park–style insects – are the most valuable.