Emanuel Aeschlimann

Emanuel Aeschlimann (born December 19, 1751 in Burgdorf ; † April 23, 1832 in Burgdorf ) was the first potter and stove builder of an important Burgdorf pottery dynasty.

Life

Emanuel Aeschlimann is the son of the glazier Wilhelm Aeschlimann (1695–1759), who was married to Maria Catharina Fankhauser for the second time since 1742. We don't know where he spent his apprenticeship and hiking time. From 1776 he was married to Anna Ingold von Inkwil (February 18, 1753 - March 19, 1796). The apartment and therefore probably also the workshop were possibly from 1775 in the Burgdorf upper town on Milchgässli, west of the Upper Badstube (today Grabenstrasse), in a house that was previously owned by the potter Johann Heinrich Gammeter, the Elder. (1675–1746) or his widow Anna Gränicher belonged. Since an unknown point in time before 1794/1795 it was rented in the "Pleinpied in the municipal building next to the Rütschelenwaschhaus".

On April 6, 1777, the parents Emanuel Aeschlimann and Anna Ingold had a son, Johann Heinrich, who later also became Hafner. In 1787 Emanuel Aeschlimann was the godfather of Johann Jakob Grütter (1787–1864), who later became a stove and tiled stove builder, in the Seeberg church . Since 1789/1791 it has been proven that Emanuel Aeschlimann was also the gatekeeper at the Rütschelentor, a position that, according to the archives, he apparently kept until the end of his life and at times even connected it with an apartment on the Rütschelentor. In 1794/1795 he built a new workshop directly at the Rütschelentor (today Rütschelengasse 23). Possibly the space in front of the new workshop was somewhat limited (Fig. 7), because the building authority regulations of 1795 already stated that the passage in front of the Rütschelentor must not be blocked. From 1798 at the latest, the son Johann Heinrich Aeschlimann (1777–1828) ran the workshop. In November 1818, the daughters and maid of Hafner Emanuel Aeschlimann, who lived at the Rütschelentor, were caught picking up "booknuts" (beechnuts) on the Binzberg, although this was forbidden in the urban forests. You could feed your own pigs with the beechnuts or have them pressed into oil. So they made a contribution to the possibly precarious economic situation of the household. On November 20, 1829, Emanuel Aeschlimann was able to experience that his grandson Heinrich Aeschlimann , master stoner (1806–1866), took the oath of burger for the Pfistern guild.

plant

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  Stove tile by Emanuel Aeschlimann, around 1780

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  Stove tile by Emanuel Aeschlimann, around 1780

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  Terrine by Emanuel Aeschlimann, around 1780/1790

Emanuel Aeschlimann's products have only survived to a limited extent. Due to family tradition, these include three unusual objects - two stove tiles and a terrine - that were handed over to the Burgdorf Knights Hall Association in 1899 by his great-grandson Arthur Aeschlimann (1842–1908). The first tile has a faience glaze with a manganese-black painting. At 59 × 46 cm, it has very unusual dimensions, which at this time you cannot really imagine a tiled stove. Whether it is a master piece or a journeyman's piece to prove the painting skills? The tile shows one of the typical, fantastic, romantic landscapes with lakes, mountains, castles, hunters and dogs, as we can still expect in the canton of Bern in the 1780s and 1790s. The second stove tile is painted with the image of a couple. It measures 27 × 23 cm. Could this be the parents of the first potter? Or is there a more caricatured self-portrait with his wife? Even more unusual is the large and heavy, three-dimensionally decorated soup bowl or terrine covered with white faience glaze , which has a maximum diameter of 35 cm. Stylistically, it can be assigned to the pre-revolutionary Empire, the style of Louis XVI. Similar three-dimensional fruit handles, however, go back to older models from the Rococo period. Innovative stoners and other craftsmen, such as B. cabinetmakers, also in the canton of Bern, if requested by their customers, very quickly adapted to the new art and decor styles emanating from Paris. The size and decoration of the soup bowl make you think of a masterpiece. No soup bowls even remotely comparable are known from the museums of German-speaking Switzerland.

literature

• Andreas Heege: Of masterpieces, stove tiles and pipes - The Hafner Aeschlimann in Burgdorf. Burgdorfer Jahrbuch 84, 2016, 19–48.

Web links

• Sources and information on the Burgdorfer Hafner dynasty Aeschlimann