Musical Box with Orpheus Taming the Animals
Johann Heinrich Köhler (1669-1736)
Date: circa 1720
Place Made: Germany
Materials & Techniques: Gold, gilt-bronze, silver, enamel, precious stones
Dimensions: Height 14.5 cm
Accession Number: Waddesdon Manor 3050
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What do you think this object is? It is a musical box, and on the lid you can see the hero Orpheus charming the animals with his playing. It was made in Germany by Johann Köhler, who used lots of different materials. The case for the musical mechanism is bronze, covered in a thin layer of gold, called gilding. Look at the details of the bodies of Orpheus and the animals. They are made of pearls, specially chosen to be the right shape. Other jewels have been set into the box as decoration.
The colour on the tree and the animals has been done with melted glass, or enamel. The cloth around Orpheus’s waist is gold.
Why do you think Köhler used so many different materials? Perhaps he wanted to make something very expensive and special.
Teachers' Information
This is a good object to use in discussions about how different materials can imply luxury or status. Precious stones and gold are clearly valuable. Baroque or freshwater pearls (which are naturally misshapen) were difficult to get hold of in the early 18th century when the musical box was made, and were regarded as exotic and rare. The range of techniques used also suggests that the workshop was very skilled in different activities. It was also difficult to combine some of these techniques – coloured enamel, for example (see detail of figure of Orpheus), requires the object to be heated in a furnace to fuse the glass to the base metal, a risky operation when the rest of the object is made from a different kind of metal which can itself be melted. Other metalwork techniques which can be seen include filigree (around Orpheus’s arms and neck) which involves weaving silver-gilt or gold wire into intricate patterns and securing it with solder.
These kinds of luxury objects were invariably made for prestigious and wealthy clients. In this case, the maker, Johann Friedrich Köhler worked at the court of Augustus the Strong, the powerful ruler of the German kingdom of Saxony, who was famous for his fabulous collection of precious objects. These objects, in silver, gold, ivory, jewels, amber, enamel, exotic materials and mixtures of all of these, were displayed in a specially-constructed suite of rooms in his palace in Dresden, called the Green Vaults which is still there today.
The musical box is also a good object to encourage thinking about form and function.
The box depicts the story of Orpheus, the hero who was so gifted musically that when he played his lyre, he charmed all the creatures around him. This was useful later when he had to visit the Underworld, the kingdom of the afterlife, to reclaim his beloved Eurydice, and needed to get past Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guarded it.
Activities
1. Look at all the different materials. Why did the maker choose some above others?
2. How was the object made? Think about the complexity of construction. Did the box come first, and then have the figures mounted on it?
3. Make an object – a treasure chest, perhaps, or a jewel box decorated with all sorts of different materials (string, wool, silver foil, paint, spangles, beads etc). The preciousness of the box shows the preciousness of the contents!