Tureen Digoin Sarreguemines

Digoin sarreguemines tureen. A small chip on the lid. At the end of the 19th century, there was not a single family that did not own some sarreguemines earthenware. In a hundred years, this factory has flooded the whole of france with its products. It is the fruit of a great success, that of françois-paul utzschneider. Born in 1771 in bavaria, he went to england, the ideal location for an apprentice ceramist. Here he is in france at the start of the revolution. Utzschneider was then able to settle in sarreguemines where he joined forces with fabry. The beginnings are modest. But the earthenware maker, a “true genius” according to reports of the time, was passionate about his profession. From his first exhibition in 1801, he was rewarded, he truly became the collector of gold medals. No longer knowing how to honor him, they ended up giving him the legion of honor. The factory is very prosperous, with a depot in paris, rue du faubourg-saint-denis. Adding a grain of vanity to his glory, the patriarch of the house married his daughter to baron alexandre de geiger; he was able to die peacefully in 1844: his son-in-law took over from him in 1836. Geiger managed the factory until 1871. But the war brought sarreguemines to german soil and led, "for the workers who wanted to remain french", to the creation of two branches, one in digoin, the other in vitry-le-françois. In 1871, the factory passed into the hands of geiger's son, paul, who kept it until 1913. The success of sarreguemines, with its two thousand workers, its four million annual turnover, in 1867, can be summed up in three words: variety, cheap, quality. In 1867, despite the increase in labor, some items declined by sixty percent!.

Ref. : DPSJ9383