Heinrich Gottlieb Kohler: an enigmatic glass engraver

Magazine Antiques, Oct, 1998 by Randi Gaustad

German researchers have suggested that Kohler was possibly the son of Johann Heinrich Kohler (1669-1736), the renowned court jeweler in Dresden from 1725 probably until his death. However, it has been possible to establish that he was not among Johann Kohler's heirs. Moreover, I have searched for him in vain in the Mormon Church's genealogy databases and for examples of his work in German museums. Judging stylistically, the Norwegian art historian Ada Polak has argued that Kohler's roots must be in Silesia (now in Poland) - in Warmbrunn or one of the other small towns in the Hirschberger Valley (Now the valley of Jelenia Gora), which was an important center for glass engraving in the 1700s.(2) As Polak contends, Kohler's realistic rendering of landscapes, buildings, everyday life and activities, and his decided sense for narrative details have clear parallels in Silesian glass. Moreover, she points out, he is known in at least one instance to have used the same engraving [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 2 OMITTED] as Christian Gottfried Schneider (1710-1773), Silesia's leading engraver of the period. However, Kohler's name is not found in the extensive Silesian records of glass engravers nor is he ever known to have used the most important decorative motif found on Silesian glass - Laub- und Bandelwerk (foliage and ribbon work). Unless additional information comes to light, we must accept that it is not possible to determine his origins.

Although little is known of Kohler's early life, his ten years in Denmark followed by about twenty in Norway and then a number of years back in Denmark in the late 1770s are well documented.(3) A number of goblets engraved for the Danish king prior to 1752 are in the Rosenborg Palace in Copenhagen, and another thirteen signed pieces also survive, some of them in Norway. The signature - either "H.G. Kohler" or the initials "H.G.K." - is always quite small and well hidden in the decoration.

Kohler's most varied and complicated composition appears on a goblet engraved to celebrate the anointment of Frederick V in 1747 (see Pl. II).(4) Typically, he combines traditional engraved-glass motifs with realistic depictions that tie the decoration to a specific event or place. On two sides are motifs from the conventional iconography of absolute monarchy, including the national coat of arms surrounded by the chain and badge of the Order of the Elephant, the king's portrait, the king's monogram, and various trophies and allegorical figures. Between these elements Kohler beautifully engraved a depiction of the cortege en route from Frederiksborg Castle in North Zealand, where the king was anointed, the Copenhagen. The picture plane is deliberately divided into three levels of depth to give changing perspectives, and all the amusing small details, such as the orchestra atop the triumphal arch and the swans in the moat, are blended into a unified whole.

Plates III and IV illustrate details of the decoration on another of the ten surviving goblets engraved by Kohler for the king and court in Copenhagen. It is the only one on which the entire bowl is decorated with a continuous rolling landscape. Against this backdrop, with a remarkable richness of narrative detail is depicted a royal hunting party at various stages of the hunt. In the foreground on one side (Pl. IV) the group is seated around a table on the avenue leading to the Eremitagen (built 1734-1736), a hunting lodge that still stands in the Dyrehaven, a deer park in the suburbs of Copenhagen. The scene is depicted in such detail that even the roast in the center of the table and the glasses and cutlery are clearly delineated. At the lower left, servants are pouring wine from bottles cooling in a barrel, and at the lower right lies the day's bag - a stag and a hare with their feet bound. Again, Kohler has taken a traditional motif and made it specific: from the end of the 1600s, hunting scenes in wooded landscapes had been a favorite subject for glass engravers, but here the scene is directly related to Frederick V's many hunting parties in the countryside around Copenhagen.

After 1750 Kohler's work showed the increasing influence of the rococo style. The significance he gives to architectural elements and his use of varied perspectives found clear parallels in ornamental engravings of the period, as epitomized by the work of the Frenchman Juste Aurele Meissonnier (1695-1750). During the reign of Christian VI (r. 1730-1746), artists were brought from France to Copenhagen to build and decorate the Christiansborg Palace in the latest mode, and it was undoubtedly this highly developed art milieu that brought about Kohler's shift in style. In order to satisfy his distinguished clientele, Kohler had to keep up with fashion and adopt the new stylistic syntax. This does not seem to have caused him any difficulty, for the rococo style suited his temperament, and he excelled at producing its lively and varied ornaments. His affinity for the style is reflected in signed receipts for payment from the royal treasury, where he described one of his goblets as having the royal arms "surrounded by French work" and another as beating the royal monogram "framed by French leafage."(5) Kohler held on to the rococo style throughout most of his careen Only his very last engravings bear the characteristics of a more classical style.