Hi
I am looking for any information on a watchmaker johann michael
kheller of friedberg germany from around 1640

---

Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 24 Jun 2003 09:39 PDT

Are you sure about the spellings of "kheller" and "friedberg"?  (There
are several names that begin with "K" and end in "ler", but not
"Kheller".)  Where did you learn about this person, and what do you
know about him (or his watches) already?

---

Clarification of Question by dinogt-ga on 24 Jun 2003 11:23 PDT

Hi

The name of the maker kheller is correct as I have the watch which is
signed by him, Friedberg is a town in Germany just west of Munich

---

Request for Question Clarification by leli-ga on 24 Jun 2003 13:23 PDT

There is a small amount of material online referring to a watchmaker
in Friedberg in the mid 17th century who signed one piece "Johan
Michael Kheller", although his name is also given as "Johann Michael
Keller".

The information is about a watch he made around 1670: description,
current location and so on.

I also came across two museum publications, one in German, one in
English, which might possibly have more about him or his work.

If this is of interest, do let me know. It doesn't seem very much but
I'm not very hopeful of finding anything more on the net.

I will send out a couple of emails asking for further information, but
I don't know if that will produce results.

Regards - Leli

---

Request for Question Clarification by leli-ga on 25 Jun 2003 02:02 PDT

Hi Wilson

Thank-you very much for your message. Shall I wait to answer until the
end of the working day to see if I get any responses to emails I've
sent out?

If I don't hear from you, I'll assume you're happy with a short delay
while I wait to see if we're lucky enough to find an email helper.

Leli

Hi again Wilson - thanks for waiting. 

I now I have a scrap more information to add to the description of a
watch by Kheller.

Johann Michael Kheller was not born in Friedberg but he was married
there twice, in 1671 and 1672. His son, also Johann Michael, was born
in 1676 and Kheller died three years later in 1679. Friedberg was an
important center for clock- and watchmakers in the seventeenth,
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Kheller is considered to be a
Friedberg watchmaker, or "Friedberger Uhrmacher".


On the website of the Friedberg Castle Museum I found information
about an unusual four-cornered chain or fob watch signed "Johan
Michael Kheller" which they date at around 1670. They borrowed it from
the British Museum for an exhibition in 1993.

The horology department at the British Museum in London kindly sent me
the biographical details above and a description of the watch which
varies slightly from what I found on the Friedberg site. The museum
expert says it is a "square-cased verge watch in a gilt case with
pierced silver overlays on all the exterior facets."

From the Friedberg Museum website I gathered that the watch was
bequeathed to the British Museum by Octavius Morgan MP in 1888.

The signature on the back plate is Johan Michael Kheller.

The outer case and face are made of fire-gilt brass, the movement
partly of fire-gilt brass. The movement is fusée and gut, with an
escapement called a "spindle" escapement in German. After reading what
the British Museum say, I assume this is a verge escapement.

The watch is 37 mm square and 14 mm high. The dial shows the hours and
quarter-hours. It is described as having a square plate with four
pillars. The case is overlaid with an openwork engraved lattice of
leaf tendrils. Parts of the piece are not original.

This is the German description:

"Viereckige Halsuhr
Johann Michael Keller
um 1670

Inventarnummer: 1888, 1201.207
Besitz: London, The British Museum
Erwerbsdaten: Erworben: 1888 durch [Octavius] Morgan
Signatur: Rückplatine: Johan Michael Kheller
Material: Übergehäuße: Messing feuervergoldet
          Ziffernblatt: Messing, feuervergoldet
          Gehwerk: Messing (teilweise feuervergoldet)
Maße:      Länge: 37 mm
           Breite: 37 mm
           Höhe: 14 mm
           Anzeige optisch: Stunden und Viertelstunden
           Gehwerk: Gehwerk mit Darmseite, Schnecke und
Spindelhemmung.

Quadratische Platine mit vier Balustpfeilern, Zifferblatt und Gehäuse
belegt mit durchbrochenem, graviertem Gitter aus Blattranken. Teile
des Werkes ergänzt."


You can find this by going to:
http://www.heimatmuseum-friedberg.de/main.phtml
Click on "Uhren" to take you to the Uhrendatenbank (clock and watch
database), then near the bottom of the list on the left, click on
"Viereckige Halsuhr".
Note that the German word "Uhr" can mean both clock and watch.


The Friedberg Museum may well be a good source for further research.
The British Museum curator says their (Friedberg's) catalog, which was
written to accompany an exhibition in 1993, has the latest information
on Friedberg makers and includes the dates from Kheller's life which I
mentioned. The museum site says the catalog has biographical
information about Friedberg clockmakers and contains descriptions of
all well-known Friedberg timepieces.

The main author of the 1993 catalog is still at the museum and indeed
is now director. I imagine she might be interested to hear from
someone who has one of Kheller's watches and I hope that as well as
obtaining the exhibition catalog, you will be able to correspond
further.

The director is Dr. Adelheid Riolini-Unger. 
Museum email, fax and telephone details are on this page:
http://www.heimatmuseum-friedberg.de/kontakt.php?wo=6

Catalog, "Friedberger Uhren" is on sale for 18 Euros:
by Adelheid Riolini Unger, Peter Friess, Johann Huegin, Friedberg
1993, ISBN 3-922865-49-6 192 pages, 18 colored and numerous black and
white illustrations
http://www.heimatmuseum-friedberg.de/shop.php?wo=5


There are a few comments online in English confirming the place of
Friedberg in the history of clocks and watches.

"in Friedberg, there was a flourishing horological industry"
http://www.antiquorum.com/html/vox/vox2003/traveling/traveling.htm

"museum in Friedberg Castle with a collection of Friedberg clocks"
http://uk.romantischestrasse.de/orte.php3?city=18&select=3

"Friedberg, a district of clockmakers"
www.vwl.uni-muenchen.de/ls_komlos/jid.pdf




===================
FURTHER INFORMATION
===================


None of the rest of this is directly about Kheller but since it came
up in the course of my research, I thought some of it might be
interesting or useful.


I've already exchanged emails with the British Museum, but I think
they would help if you had a further query relating to 'their' watch.
They say you can order pictures of the watch in their collection.

Enquiries related to the Horological collections should be made:
by email: horological@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
by phone: +44 (0)20 7323 8629
by post: Department of Prehistory and Europe
Horology
The British Museum
London WC1B 3DG
http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/pe/pecon.html


* * * *

Then a couple of long shots for tracking down more information:

1. You might get lucky with an inquiry at this German horologists'
website:

English introduction:
http://www.uhrenhanse.de/uh_englisch.htm

Ask-a-question section - including a request for no valuation
inquiries.
http://www.uhrenberatung.de/



2. As I searched I found there has recently been a major pocket watch
exhibition in Würzburg (also southern Germany) with 500 watches from
the last four hundred years. Perhaps there's a chance they might have
information on Kheller? The same museum has organized other
horological exhibitions.

2002 exhibition in Würzburg - Four Centuries of Pocket Watches
http://www.uhrenhanse.de/sammlerecke/taschenuhren/zeitzeugen/zeitzeugen.htm

Catalog with about 300 illustrations:

"Taschenuhren aus vier Jahrhunderten aus den Sammlungen des
Mainfränkischen Museums Würzburg, bearbeitet von Ian D. Fowler und
Frauke van der Wall, Sammlungskatalog Bd. XVI, ca. 300 Abbildungen,
davon 16 farbig; ISBN 3-932461-20-7, Würzburg 2002"
It costs 17 Euros. 
This has sample pages which you can enlarge and a phone number for
ordering:
http://www.uhrenaktuell.de/uak_mnews11.htm#nr105

The email contact address is incorrect. I'd suggest changing it to
match the (English?) curator's name.

The Museum address:

Mainfränkisches Museum Würzburg
Festung Marienberg
97082 Würzburg
Telefon 0931/20594-0
Telefax 0931/20594-56
http://www.mainfraenkisches-museum.de/html/hoeffn.htm

Museum information about the exhibition:
http://www.mainfraenkisches-museum.de/html/haktuell.htm


* * * *


Watch vocabulary including:

Halsuhr     - chain watch (literally neck watch)
Anzeige     - display
Gehäuse     - case
Zifferblatt - dial, face
Hemmung     - escapement

German-English horology dictionary
http://www.timedesign.de/info/dictionary.html

"Fire gilding (Fine Arts), a mode of gilding with an amalgam of gold
and quicksilver, the latter metal being driven off afterward by heat.
Fire gilt (Fine Arts), gold laid on by the process of fire gilding."
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=fire+gilt&r=67

fusée and gut
http://www.antique-watch.com/ref/m_fusgut.html
http://www.ozdoba.net/swisswatch/pocket_gloss.html#fusee

verge escapement
http://www.antique-watch.com/ref/e_verge.html

escapements
http://www.antique-watch.com/ref/esc_idx.html


* * * *

Octavius Morgan

As well as being a Member of Parliament in London, he was a
horologist, silver collector and amateur archaeologist.

There was an article on his life and collections in the Antiquarian
Horology Journal in March of this year:
http://www.ahsoc.demon.co.uk/journal.html

Octavius Morgan bequest to British Museum
http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/compass/ixbin/hixclient.exe?_IXDB_=compass&_IXFIRST_=1&_IXMAXHITS_=1&_IXSPFX_=graphical/full/&$+with+all_unique_id_index+is+$=ENC6985&submit-button=summary



I hope this is of interest, despite the difficulty of finding
information about Kheller. Perhaps it affects the estimate of your
watch's date?

From my point of view it was an interesting piece of research, so
thank-you for asking the question.

Please let me know if anything needs clarification and I'll do my best
to help.


Regards - Leli



Search strategy:
Tried various combinations of the names in different spellings (Johan
Keller etc.)
Then:
Friedberg Uhrmacher - led to the Friedberg collection
Halsuhr  watch      - led to the horology dictionary
Taschenuhren 17. jahrhundert -  led to the Würzburg museum
Also searches for British Museum, Morgan, technical terms etc.

---

Clarification of Answer by leli-ga on 01 Jul 2003 10:20 PDT

Some extra help from members of the "Uhrenberatung" forum I mentioned.

One suggestion they made is that when/if you contact Dr.
Riolini-Unger, you might send a photograph of your watch.

Kheller's marriage in 1671 was to Ursula Bayr (January 26)
In 1672 he married Anna Maria Het (April 26)
His son had another Friedberg watchmaker as godfather: Elias
Kreittmayr.
(Plenty of other spellings for Kreittmayr: one 't', 'i' instead of
'y', 'h' after the 'K' etc.)
Johan Michael Kheller, Junior was apprenticed to Georg Nessl in Graz
(Austria) in 1690.
"Your" Kheller died on May 27,1679.

The British Museum watch is illustrated in G.H.Baillie's "Watches"
published in 1929.

The horologists in the group have been tremendously helpful,
circulating my request to different members with specialist knowledge,
but I doubt if you would learn anything further about Kheller by
contacting them yourself.

Leli

Hi leli-ga

I would like to thank you for all the information you have managed
collect on a very difficult subject. This information will give me
access to further usful information which is much appreciated.

In my request for clarification, I had jumped to a conclusion that
Kheller was not a name.  I have realized from further searching, and
as leli-ga has indicated, that Kheller is a name, even if not as
common as some similar names.

Hi Leli

I would be most interested in any information you could forward
however small even the german publications.


Best Regards


Wilson

Many thanks for your kind message. I wish you good luck with
continuing the research into Kheller's life and work - quite a
challenge but an interesting project. Thank-you for the tip and
rating, too.

If by any chance I hear anything more in response to emails I sent, I
will of course let you know.

Leli