Johann Christian Neuber was born in 1736 in the town of Neuwernsdorf in Saxony. At the age of sixteen, he registered as an apprentice in the Dresden workshop of the goldsmith Johann Friedrich Tectaon, where he remained for six years. In 1762 he became one of Dresden's master goldsmiths and only five years later was named a court artisan to Friedrich Augustus III (1750−1827), Elector of Saxony. Sometime before 1775, he was appointed the Elector's court jeweler. A travel book published in 1782 that listed Dresden's notable sights praised Johann Christian Neuber's "extraordinary dexterity," commenting that "the goldsmiths and jewelers of Dresden are very famous. But the jeweler of the Court has so much taste, that his best works are, rightly, widely admired and sought-after."