Antique German Villeroy & Boch Mettlach Art Nouveau Ceramic Pedestal Vase.  The vases stand raised on a narrow domed round foot with a wide round rouleau shaped body with incised petal designs containing flowering stems around the lower and upper sections of the body with rope twist borders around decorative panels containing boys in the main body and musical instruments in the top spout. Marked on the bottom and dated (18)93.  

Size: 6 x 6 x 12 1/2 in. 

Villeroy & Boch, a German manufacturer of ceramics headquartered in Mettlach, Saarland, began in the tiny Lorraine village of Audun le Tiche, where the iron master François Boch set up a pottery company with his three sons in 1748. In 1766 Boch was licensed to build a ceramics kiln nearby at Septfontaines, Luxembourg, where it operated a porcelain factory, and in 1785 Nicolas Villeroy became sole owner of a faience manufactory at Wallerfangen, making them their closest and fiercest competitor. In 1812 Boch’s son Jean-François began construction of new kilns at the nearby town of Mettlach, but an economic upset in the region ruined the fortunes of both companies, so to avoid the closure of both facilities the Jean François Boch Company merged with their greatest rival, Nicolas Villeroy, and became Villeroy & Boch (frequently written simply as V&B or “VB”) in 1836. Among its innovations was Phanolith, created by the ceramics artist Jean-Baptiste Stahl, a kind of semi-transparent porcelain that combines the characteristics and benefits of jasperware and pâte-sur-pâte. Over the next hundred years the company weathered numerous political, social, and economic upheavals, eventually separating into two divisions: Dining & Lifestyle (formerly Tableware), and Bathroom & Wellness. Today, Villeroy & Boch is overseen by Group Chairman Frank Göring and is no longer run by any family descendants, although members of both the Boch and Villeroy families continue to be employed by the company. 

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