Plate
Villeroy&Boch/Mettlach,
ca. 1916r.
model 2960 II
dia 30.5cm
hand-painted faience
In 1809, at the Benedictine Abbey in Mettlach, Jean Francis Boch opens the Boch - Buschmann company with his wife (Rosalie Buschmann). As early as 1820, the factory used for the first time techniques that were innovative for the time for making decorations - in the case of illustrations, they were transferred from the already finished matrix to the fired object before glazing, while in the case of relief objects, the decoration was created in the mold for firing. This made it possible to make cheaper, but more formally sophisticated products that satisfied the needs, of the middle class at the time. Between 1836 and 1841, the Mettlach company merged with Nicolas Villeroy's company, and from then on the company took the name Villeroy&Boch. At the same time, August von Cohausen became the director of the factory. It was also at this time that the creators of Villeroy&Boch began to draw on designs taken from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. From 1878/79, a representation of an abbey appeared in the company's trademark. The golden days of the Mettlach factory were between 1880 and 1910, a period of increased production resulting in the greatest variety of forms. The outbreak of World War I was followed by difficult times for the company, and a fire that destroyed much of the infrastructure in 1921 meant that the factory never recovered. From 1925 until the early 1930s, some of the earlier models were still produced at Mettlach, but production was gradually extinguished.
