FAÏENCERIE DE SARREGUEMINES, Two Ceramic Panels of Parisian Scenes, from 1881-0

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Style Napoleon III / Ref.15761

FAÏENCERIE DE SARREGUEMINES, Two Ceramic Panels of Parisian Scenes, from 1881

Dimensions
Width 35'' ⅞ 91cm
Height 54'' 137cm

The Descent of the Courtille

The first panel depicts the famous Descent of the Courtille, a parade created in 1822 on the occasion of the Paris Carnival. Due to its popularity, it was held annually at least until 1859 and the expansion of Paris. La Courtille was already a well-known place of entertainment, as it was exempt from the wine taxes applied within the boundaries of the Paris Farmers-General wall. The guinguettes that thrived there made it the ideal starting point for this parade, which descended part of what are now rue de Belleville and rue du Faubourg du Temple toward the Canal Saint Martin. Our panel shows the beginning of the event, starting from La Courtille, as indicated by the name of the establishment in the background, likely a guinguette. Joyful characters parade two by two in a rural setting. The woman in the foreground waves her companion’s hat and cane as he carries her on his shoulders—they are making a lot of noise. In contrast, the couple behind them is very close together: they are whispering to each other, seemingly about the pair in the foreground, judging by their sly smiles.

The Descent of the Courtille was the subject of a vaudeville-ballet-pantomime by Théophile Marion Dumersan and Charles Désiré Dupeuty in 1841, for which Richard Wagner composed *Descendons gaiement la Courtille*.

The Flower Girl of Château d’Eau

Our second panel depicts a scene from the work by Paul de Kock (1793–1871), *The Flower Girl of Château d’Eau*, published in 1855. The startled young woman is being harassed by a man with a sneering smile while she was selling her flowers. The crowd, composed of both men and women, reacts in very different ways—some are amused, others frightened or shocked—but no one steps in to help. The scene takes place in Place du Château d’Eau, now known as Place de la République. The square was originally named after the fountain by Pierre-Simon Girard, adorned with four lions, which appears on the panel. Today, the fountain is located in the square named after it, Place de la Fontaine-aux-Lions, in the 19th arrondissement.

Both scenes are framed by a beautiful ochre border with vegetal ornaments and are signed in the lower left corner with the mark “S DVP” and the address “28, rue de Paradis - Paris.” Rue de Paradis was home to many ceramics and crystal manufacturers, such as the Manufactures of Saint-Louis, Choisy-le-Roi, and Baccarat. In this case, it refers to the famous Lorraine fine earthenware manufacturer Sarreguemines, which had a warehouse at number 28. Numerous ceramic panels produced by Sarreguemines adorned buildings between the 19th and 20th centuries. For example, a ceramic panel installed in 1898 on the Villa Louis in Enghien-les-Bains bears the exact same mark.

The mark’s initials indicate an “S” for Sarreguemines, a “D” for Digoin, a “V” for Vitry-le-François, and a “P” most likely for Paris. This tells us that our panels were produced from 1881 onward, the year the factory opened a site in Vitry-le-François in response to the annexation of Lorraine by Germany in 1876, allowing the company to continue trading in France.

Although the Sarreguemines factory was founded in 1790, the arrival of Paul Utzschneider as director in 1799 marked the beginning of its rise to fame. From then on, the factory expanded and diversified its production: fine earthenware, stoneware, and decorative majolica tiles. Majolica became the hallmark of the company, establishing Sarreguemines as one of the most important ceramic centers in Europe. In the realm of grand decoration, Sarreguemines always followed artistic trends and cutting-edge styles.