Johann Heinrich Koehler

Johann Heinrich Köhler (* 1669 in Langensalza ; † May 5, 1736 in Dresden ) was a Saxon goldsmith and court jeweler.

Life

Johann Heinrich Köhler was the son of Christoph Köhler and his wife Anna Christine, b. Werner. He completed an apprenticeship as a goldsmith, probably with Michael Köhler, an uncle like him who lived in the town of Langensalza. In the mid-1690s, Köhler moved to Dresden, the royal seat of the Electorate of Saxony , the hometown of his father and grandfather. The latter had served the Saxon electors as a court tailor for 44 years.

Köhler soon succeeded in building up an existence as a goldsmith in Dresden. After being a journeyman , he acquired master craftsman's rights in 1701 and citizenship in 1707 . From 1703 a workshop with two journeymen is documented. August the Strong , Elector of Saxony and King of Poland at the same time, had been making purchases from Köhler for his collection of precious objects since the beginning of the 18th century . In 1718 he appointed Köhler as the successor to the late court jeweler Gottfried Döring. The acquisition of a large residential and commercial building on Grosse Frauengasse in Dresden in 1719 is evidence of Köhler's professional rise .

After a first marriage with Anna Christina, b. Kretschmar, who died early, married Köhler in 1700 the widow of the surgeon Gustav Unger, who had worked in the Dresden fortress construction. Christiane Diez (e), widowed Unger, brought a daughter into the marriage, Christiane Sophie, who had emerged from her association with the deceased Elector Johann Georg IV, the older brother of Augustus the Strong.

Johann Heinrich Köhler died on May 5, 1736 at the age of 67. On May 9, 1736, he was buried in the Johannisfriedhof in Dresden.

plant

Köhler's complete oeuvre as a goldsmith and court jeweler includes pearl figures, ivory statuettes processed into genre scenes and character studies, settings of ostentatious vessels, jewelery sets and a few sacred objects. The first datable work is the triumphal architecture richly decorated with gems with two obelisks . The triumphal architecture was part of a larger bundle from the royal collection of treasures that August the Strong had pledged in Hamburg in January 1706. The nautilus cup with coral teeth from 1724 is a highlight of his work . For this purpose, Köhler used several fragments from the electoral collections: a foot in the shape of a dragon with coral teeth (3rd quarter of the 16th century) and a nautilus case from the Amsterdam artist family Bellekin Grotesques (1st half of the 17th century). Both set pieces served as inspiration for the connecting pieces: a shaft figure that refers to the grotesques and a spouting dragon sitting on the cup. The merging of the individual parts into a whole succeeded so convincingly that the ostentatious vessel barely reveals its character as a conglomerate.

In the field of splendid clocks, Köhler showed a kaleidoscope of his abilities and in it reminds of the eight splendid bowls by Johann Melchior Dinglinger. The Hubertus clock from 1728, developed together with the clockmaker Johann Gottlieb Graupner, has the only surviving signature of the court jeweler. Under August III. , the son of Augustus the Strong, Köhler was entrusted with the production of the coronation insignia for the Elector-King and his wife Maria Josepha in 1733, which are now in the National Museum in Warsaw . At the end of his life, Köhler donated a large-format altar cross with 350 precious and decorative stones to his baptistery St. Stephan in Langensalza, together with 200 thalers for an annual memorial service on Good Friday. In the estate file of the court jeweler there is a copy of a detailed description of the work, which was probably written by one or two experts in the course of the estate processing. The altar cross, which remained unfinished at the time of Köhler's death, was completed by the Dresden silver worker Johann Siegmund Less.

Köhler's activity as a court jeweler includes, in addition to the aforementioned groups of works, everyday work such as inventories, appraising works of art, arranging objects in showcases and accompanying art transports. In the course of setting up the Green Vault, he also put numerous goldsmith objects from the electoral collections into an exhibition condition. Such work (re-gilding, refreshing the color, repairs and additions) are documented in detail in an invoice issued by Köhler in 1724. In addition to his duties as court jeweler, Köhler, like many contemporary goldsmiths, continued to manufacture and trade in and with gold and silver goods as well as jewels and did private financial transactions.

Inventory of precious objects from 1725

The majority of Köhler's works are now in the Green Vault (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden). A total of 41 objects from the collection can be safely attributed to him through sources. An inventory of royal treasures dated January 5, 1725, which Köhler co-authored, plays a special role. This "Inventarium Derer Königl: Pretiosen which are in the Königl: Green Vault" testifies to Koehler's authorship of numerous works ("von Koehler").

In addition to Johann Melchior Dinglinger and his workshop, Köhler can be regarded as an important representative of court goldsmithing in Dresden in the first third of the 18th century.

literature

Marc Rosenberg : Köhler, J. Ch. In: General German Biography (ADB). Volume 51, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1906, p. 312.
Ernst Sigismund : Koehler, Johann Heinrich . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 21 : Knip – Kruger . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1927, p. 122-123 .
Jean Louis Sponsel: The Green Vault: a selection of masterpieces in four volumes. Volume 3: Jewels of the goldsmith's art: decorated with enamel and jewels, products of the stone-cutting art in rock crystal and colored stone types in the most precious settings, haberdashery and knickknacks, cabinet pieces. 1929, p. 101 ff. ( Digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de )
Joachim Menzhausen: The court jeweler Heinrich Koehler as a restorer, in: Yearbook of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, 1965/66, pp. 91–99.
Ulrike Weinhold: "A Scheer grinder from help leg". Facets of late baroque treasure art, in: Renate Eikelmann, Annette Schommers (eds.): Studies on European goldsmithing from the 14th to 20th centuries, Munich 2001, pp. 287–306.
Ulrike Weinhold: Forms of Presentation in Change. The two Moors with the emerald and land stone steps in the Green Vault, in: Dresdener Kunstblätter 54 (2010), No. 2, pp. 99–115.
Dirk Syndram, Ulrike Weinhold (ed.): The Dresden court jeweler Johann Heinrich Köhler. Dinglinger's fiercest competitor, exhib. Cat.Green Vault, Dresden 2019.

Web links

Commons : Johann Heinrich Köhler - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Green vault: The Dresden court jeweler Johann Heinrich Köhler. gruenes-gewoelbe.skd.museum, accessed on October 30, 2019 .
↑ Jochen Vötsch: Johann Heinrich Köhler. A biographical portrait, in: Dirk Syndram, Ulrike Weinhold (ed.): The Dresden court jeweler Johann Heinrich Köhler. Dinglinger's fiercest competitor, exhib. Cat. Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden 2019, pp. 11–17.
↑ Jutta Kappel: Considerations on the significance and function of ivory art in jewelery works by Johann Heinrich Koehler, in: Dirk Syndram, Ulrike Weinhold (ed.): The Dresden court jeweler Johann Heinrich Koehler. Dinglinger's fiercest competitor, exhib. Cat. Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden 2019, pp. 79–89.
↑ Dirk Syndram: Johann Heinrich Köhler as a designer of royal jewels, in: Ders., Ulrike Weinhold (ed.): The Dresden court jeweler Johann Heinrich Köhler. Dinglinger's fiercest competitor, exhib. Cat. Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden 2019, pp. 29–47.
↑ Ulrike Weinhold: "all kinds of strange figures, winged worms and birds". The collection as a source of inspiration for Johann Heinrich Köhler, in: Dirk Syndram, Ulrike Weinhold (ed.): The Dresden court jeweler Johann Heinrich Köhler. Dinglinger's fiercest competitor, exhib. Cat. Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden 2019, pp. 57–65.
↑ Susanne Thürigen: "À facon de ..." The splendid clocks by Johann Heinrich Koehler, in: Dirk Syndram, Ulrike Weinhold (ed.): The Dresden court jeweler Johann Heinrich Koehler. Dinglinger's fiercest competitor, exhib. Cat. Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden 2019, pp. 67–77.
↑ Ulf Kempe, Martin Wagner, Christoph Herm: Mineralogical investigations on the stone decoration of the crucifix by Johann Heinrich Köhler from the St. Stephan mountain church in Bad Langensalza, in: Dirk Syndram, Ulrike Weinhold (ed.): Der Dresdner Hofjuwelier Johann Heinrich Köhler. Dinglinger's fiercest competitor, exhib. Cat. Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden 2019, pp. 167–180; Maria Willert: The altar cross from the St. Stephan mountain church in Bad Langensalza. Description of the property and technical examination, in: Dirk Syndram, Ulrike Weinhold (ed.): The Dresden court jeweler Johann Heinrich Köhler. Dinglinger's fiercest competitor, exhib. Cat. Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden 2019, pp. 157–165
↑ Eve Begov: The court jeweler Johann Heinrich Köhler at the service of the Elector royal collection, in: Dirk Syndram, Ulrike Weinhold (ed.): The Dresden court jeweler Johann Heinrich Köhler. Dinglinger's fiercest competitor, exhib. Cat. Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden 2019, pp. 49–55.
↑ see the complete transcription of the invoice in: Dirk Syndram, Ulrike Weinhold (ed.): The Dresden court jeweler Johann Heinrich Köhler. Dinglinger's fiercest competitor, exhib. Cat. Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden 2019, pp. 192–205.
↑ see the list of works in: Dirk Syndram, Ulrike Weinhold (ed.): The Dresden court jeweler Johann Heinrich Köhler. Dinglinger's fiercest competitor, exhib. Cat. Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden 2019, pp. 182–191.

personal data
SURNAME	Koehler, Johann Heinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Koehler, J. Ch.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Saxon goldsmith and court jeweler
DATE OF BIRTH	1669
PLACE OF BIRTH	Langensalza
DATE OF DEATH	May 5, 1736
Place of death	Dresden

[SKD-1] Green vault: The Dresden court jeweler Johann Heinrich Köhler. gruenes-gewoelbe.skd.museum, accessed on October 30, 2019 .

[2] Jochen Vötsch: Johann Heinrich Köhler. A biographical portrait, in: Dirk Syndram, Ulrike Weinhold (ed.): The Dresden court jeweler Johann Heinrich Köhler. Dinglinger's fiercest competitor, exhib. Cat. Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden 2019, pp. 11–17.

[3] Jutta Kappel: Considerations on the significance and function of ivory art in jewelery works by Johann Heinrich Koehler, in: Dirk Syndram, Ulrike Weinhold (ed.): The Dresden court jeweler Johann Heinrich Koehler. Dinglinger's fiercest competitor, exhib. Cat. Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden 2019, pp. 79–89.

[4] Dirk Syndram: Johann Heinrich Köhler as a designer of royal jewels, in: Ders., Ulrike Weinhold (ed.): The Dresden court jeweler Johann Heinrich Köhler. Dinglinger's fiercest competitor, exhib. Cat. Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden 2019, pp. 29–47.

[5] Ulrike Weinhold: "all kinds of strange figures, winged worms and birds". The collection as a source of inspiration for Johann Heinrich Köhler, in: Dirk Syndram, Ulrike Weinhold (ed.): The Dresden court jeweler Johann Heinrich Köhler. Dinglinger's fiercest competitor, exhib. Cat. Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden 2019, pp. 57–65.

[6] Susanne Thürigen: "À facon de ..." The splendid clocks by Johann Heinrich Koehler, in: Dirk Syndram, Ulrike Weinhold (ed.): The Dresden court jeweler Johann Heinrich Koehler. Dinglinger's fiercest competitor, exhib. Cat. Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden 2019, pp. 67–77.

[7] Ulf Kempe, Martin Wagner, Christoph Herm: Mineralogical investigations on the stone decoration of the crucifix by Johann Heinrich Köhler from the St. Stephan mountain church in Bad Langensalza, in: Dirk Syndram, Ulrike Weinhold (ed.): Der Dresdner Hofjuwelier Johann Heinrich Köhler. Dinglinger's fiercest competitor, exhib. Cat. Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden 2019, pp. 167–180; Maria Willert: The altar cross from the St. Stephan mountain church in Bad Langensalza. Description of the property and technical examination, in: Dirk Syndram, Ulrike Weinhold (ed.): The Dresden court jeweler Johann Heinrich Köhler. Dinglinger's fiercest competitor, exhib. Cat. Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden 2019, pp. 157–165

[8] Eve Begov: The court jeweler Johann Heinrich Köhler at the service of the Elector royal collection, in: Dirk Syndram, Ulrike Weinhold (ed.): The Dresden court jeweler Johann Heinrich Köhler. Dinglinger's fiercest competitor, exhib. Cat. Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden 2019, pp. 49–55.

[9] see the complete transcription of the invoice in: Dirk Syndram, Ulrike Weinhold (ed.): The Dresden court jeweler Johann Heinrich Köhler. Dinglinger's fiercest competitor, exhib. Cat. Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden 2019, pp. 192–205.

[10] see the list of works in: Dirk Syndram, Ulrike Weinhold (ed.): The Dresden court jeweler Johann Heinrich Köhler. Dinglinger's fiercest competitor, exhib. Cat. Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden 2019, pp. 182–191.