A Pair of Large 'Japoniste' Enamelled Ceramic Tiled Panels

By Paul Jaunez Sarreguemines, after Jules Chèret, circa 1890

Each panel signed PdS in the lower left corner

Each panel: 85 3/8 in (213.4 cm) high, 35 ½ in (88.7 cm) wide

cf. Fayenceries de Sarreguemines Digoin et Vitry-Le-François: Planches de Catalogues, Premier quart du XXe siècle, Les Amis du Musée et des Arts – Sarreguemines, 2001, Série B, Planche 13

The Sarreguemines pottery factory, based in Lorraine (France), was founded in 1778 and continued its production until the end of the 19th century. It specialised in cream-coloured earthenware and stoneware, building its success on imitating English ceramics of this kind. By 1867 it was said not only to be one of the largest French factories of industrial ceramics (employing over 2000 people), but also one of the most refined. Its brilliantly glazed products, including these panels, bear witness to an extraordinary degree of ceramic dexterity.

Francois-Paul Utzschneider (1771-1844) went into partnership with Joseph Fabry in 1792, producing ceramics in their factory at Sarreguemines in the Moselle. Utzschneider was the creative force in the partnership and was variously referred to as le Wedgwood Francais and le ceramiste francais d’importance le plus mesestime…ce grand genie de la ceramique francaise’. In 1809, the factory was awarded a Gold medal at the Produits de L’Industrie exhibition for their vases in the newly discovered composition of pulverised stone in imitation of porphyry, basalt, jasper and other precious stones. At the exhibition their products attracted the attention of Baron Vivant-Denon Directeur General du Musée Napoleon who decided to employ the pair on an Imperial Commission.

By August 1810, the project had evolved into an order for eight pairs of candelabra of two different designs, and 22 pairs of vases of four different designs, of which two pairs are in the Throne Room of the Palazzo Reale in Naples. A further pair was recorded in 1925 as having been in the collection of the Grand Duke Nicolas Mikhailovich, grandson of Tsar Nicholas I. Two pairs of related design, but not part of the Imperial Order, are at the Chateau de Fontainebleau. There is a pair of vases from the order in the Grand Trianon.

In their asymmetrical composition and the use of plants and animals, these panels demonstrate the Japanese influence prevalent at their time. Both Jules Chéret and Théophile Steinlein designed decoration for tile panels at a studio in Paris, with offices at 28 rue de Paradis. These panels were made in Paris, as the signature consists of the letters ‘P’ for Paris, ‘d’ for Digoin, interlinked with a horizontal ‘S’ for Sarreguemines. A similar pair of panels is illustrated in the Sarreguemines trade catalogue of decorative tiles from 1905.