Niderviller Two Fine Earthenware Cups With Flower Decor

Two cups with polychrome decoration of bouquets of flowers, laurel fises in gold, and partridge partridge bottom in reserves, wolf teeth in gold, fine Niderviller earthenware, Mark N4563 in red

In 1735, in Niderviller, Anne Marie André, widow Defontaine, gives the authorization to the master potter Mathias Lesprit de Badonviller to create a pottery in his field, finally to make profitable the forests and the quarries. Unfortunately the debts accumulate and on September 4, 1748 the nephews of Anne Marie André sell the property, including the factory, to Jean-Louis Beyerle, director of the Strasbourg currency whose ambition is to equal the reputation of the Hannong factory in Strasbourg. He hired earthenware makers from Strasbourg including the young painter and chemist François-Antoine Anstette. The latter improves production; in 1759, he took over the management of the factory which was rebuilt after a fire. He produces fine pottery, "Terre le Pipe"; polychrome statuettes in "petit feu" after Cyfflé, and in 1763, with the help of German defectors, hard porcelain. A number of pieces that were produced at the end of this period were marked with the initials NB or BN (Beyerlé, Niderviller). The privilege of Sèvres forbade him to decorate pottery in gold and, discouraged, Beyerlé sold the factory on December 6, 1770 to the Count of Custine, who continued production. Since he was financially at the end of his rope, he began a cooperation with François-Henri Lanfrey who took over the management in 1778, enlarged the factory, bought a kaolin quarry in Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche (near Limoges) as a factory in Schneckenbusch and the bankrupt Cyfflé mussels. Niderviller plate. He hired 50 people, including Joseph Seeger, chemist, and Lemire, a student of Cyfflé. He produced bisque porcelain figurines and a new, inexpensive, fine pottery: pebbling. The mark in this period consists of two crossed 'C's, with or without a crown. Problems came with the French Revolution: General Custine was guillotined on August 29, 1793, the workforce fell dramatically and production continued with 15 people. Finally, September 1, 1802 Lanfrey can buy the factory with the quarry. With the Empire the production of luxury products resumed and the workforce went back to 50 people. In 1824, Lanfrey (who died 3 years later) had signed a contract for the provisional sale of the quarry. His two sons sell the factory to Louis-Guillaume de Dryander, a partner of Boch-Buchmann in Mettlach (Saar). Finally, in 1827, the production of porcelain was stopped, that of Limoges opposing too much competition. The manufacture of Niderviller then focuses on earthenware. In 1886, the company became a joint stock company, being then in German territory. Until 1948, the pottery of Niderviller remained the property of the Dryander family. the group was gradually bought out, until 1963, by the Worms bank. Before becoming a SCOP in 1987, the company passed into the hands of SITRAM in 1981. It was in 1993 that it was the subject of a judicial reorganization. It was finally integrated into the group “Les Jolies Céramiques” of which it still remains. a subsidiary today.