August Frederick Biehle, Sr. stencil collection

August Frederick Biehle, Sr. was born in Freiberg, Baden, in 1856. His father supported the family by creating costume jewelry. He died when August was only four. Following school August apprenticed to a painter and attended trade school where he focused primarily on drawing. Following three years of military service he emigrated to America in 1880. Settling in Cleveland he worked as a designer and painter for the Cooks Brothers Company for sixteen years before founding his own firm and contracting for work with the firm of Louis Rohreimer (later Rorimer and Brooks). His work as a designer was well known and could be found in the mansions of many prominent Clevelanders, churches, and public buildings in northeastern Ohio. Of his five children August F. Biehle, Jr. achieved distinction as an artist in his own right, exhibiting his paintings at galleries including the Kokoon Arts Club, and in the Cleveland Museum of Art's May Show, where he was a frequent prize winner.