Kähler

Why it is renowned

Kähler made its name in the 1880s with a ruby lustre glaze modelled on the Renaissance maiolica of Gubbio, and with vases designed by Karl Hansen Reistrup that did well at the Great Nordic Exhibition in Copenhagen in 1888 and at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889.¹ The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York holds a glazed earthenware vase from the workshop of Herman A. Kähler, designed by Reistrup around 1890.²

The figures Kai Nielsen modelled for Kähler from 1922 sold in Denmark and abroad.³ After the Second World War the house exported with success, and it has belonged to the Rosendahl Design Group since 2018.¹

The story

Herman Kähler opened a pottery in Næstved in 1839, making stoves and kitchenware.¹ His son Herman A. Kähler took over with his brother Carl in 1872 and built a new factory on the edge of town in 1875.¹ He drew in artists: the painter H. A. Brendekilde came in 1885 as the first, Karl Hansen Reistrup joined from the Royal Porcelain Factory in 1888, and Svend Hammershøi worked there from 1893 until his death and drew the HAK mark still used today.³

The family ran the firm until 1974, when it was sold to Næstved Municipality; Frantz Longhi bought it in 2007 and the Rosendahl Design Group in 2018.¹ Many pieces are still painted by hand.³ Omaggio, with its hand-painted stripes, followed in 2008, and in 2015 Hans-Christian Bauer designed the Hammershøi series after Svend Hammershøi's grooved forms.⁴⁵

What to know it by

• Omaggio2008Stilleben (Ditte Reckweg, Jelena Schou Nordentoft)Vases with hand-painted stripes
• Hammershøi2015Hans-Christian BauerGrooved tableware and vases after Svend Hammershøi
• Kähler red glaze1888Herman A. KählerRuby lustre glaze after Gubbio maiolica
• Kai Nielsen figures1922Kai NielsenEarthenware figures, among them the Princess and the Pea