PHILATELY / ФИЛАТЕЛИЯ: 2011

Friday, December 23, 2011

The Amber Room (In English sometimes known as Amber Chamber, Russian: Янтарная комната Yantarnaya komnata, German: Bernsteinzimmer) in the Catherine Palace of Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg is a complete chamber decoration of amber panels backed with gold leaf and mirrors. Due to its singular beauty, it was sometimes dubbed the "Eighth Wonder of the World".

Before it was lost, the original Amber Room represented a joint effort of German and Russian craftsmen. Construction of the Amber Room began in 1701 to 1709 inPrussia. The room was designed by German baroque sculptor Andreas Schlüter and constructed by the Danish amber craftsman Gottfried Wolfram and remained atCharlottenburg Palace until 1716 when it was given by Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm I to his then ally, Tsar Peter the Great of the Russian Empire. In Russia it was expanded and after several renovations, it covered more than 55 square meters and contained over six tons of amber. The Amber Room was looted during World War II by Nazi Germany and brought to Königsberg. Knowledge of its whereabouts was lost in the chaos at the end of the war.

In 1979 efforts began to rebuild the Amber room at Tsarskoye Selo. In 2003, after decades of work by Russian craftsmen, financed by donations from Germany, the reconstructed Amber Room was inaugurated in the Catherine Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

2009 Russia N.V. Gogol

Nikolay Vasilevich Gogol (1809-1852) is the great Russian prose writer, playwright, critic who opened new epoch in Russian literature in due time. He opened new literary epoch in Russia. Everything in creativity of writer distinguished him from predecessors: singularity of the maintenance, brightness of types, lambent humour and, of course, his amazing language – laconic and well-aimed. "Auditor", «Dead souls», "Viy", «Evenings on a farm near Dikanka» and Gogol's other products are deeply poetical and original. «Lie in art, lie in science and lie in life, - wrote Nikolay Vasilevich in declining years, - were always both my enemies, and my torturers: everywhere I pursued them, and everywhere they pursued me». Souvenir sheet represents N.V.Gogol's portrait of F.A.Moller's brush (1840th) and a still-life, symbolizing creative nature of writer.