Pair of colonnes from Sarreguemines

A big pair of columns in ceramic imitating porphyre, mounted in ormolu and standing on a green marble base.

Period: Empire, circa 1813

Manufacture: Fabry et Utzschneider et Compagnie, Sarreguemines, awarded the Gold Medal at the Salon des Produits de l’Industrie in 1809.

Bronze caster:

Pierre-Maximilien Delafontaine (1777-1860)

Stamps: Sarreguemines

Size:

Height 210 cm.   6 ft 10 ¾ in.

Width  35.5 cm.   1 ft 2 in.

Pair of columns from Sarreguemines (contd)

Each column is composed of a base in veined green marble and five ceramic elements joined together by a steel rod.  The top is surmounted by a  Medicis vase.

A pair of similar columns was offered by the city of Dieppe to Empress Josephine and is now in the Marmottan Museum in Paris.  Two pairs can be seen in the Château de Fontainebleau, two pairs at the Palazzo Reale in Naples and others at the cathedral of Trier (Germany).

A similar pair, with basins, is in the  Grand Salon of the Palais de l’Elysée on the ground floor, echoing two Sarreguemines vases made with the same technique.

Bibliography:

Dossier de l’Art N° 23, L’Elysée, Histoire et Décors depuis 1720, April/May 1995, p. 71.

Paul Utzschneider

In 1800 Nicolas Jacoby sold his shares of the company to Joseph Fabry and to Paul Utzschneider, a Bavarian who had settled in  Strasbourg. An excellent ceramist, he introduced to Sarreguemines techniques that he had observed in England during a study trip.  His production attracted attention at national exhibitions where he won numerous gold medals.  His stoneware, imitating hard stone, was appreciated by Emperor Napoleon 1st who ordered 22 vases and eight pairs of columns of two different models in 1812.

Fine polished stoneware

Stoneware is a hard paste ceramic fired at a high temperature (1200/1300°), during which it undergoes natural vitrification. The paste is composed of a mixture of clay and sand.

Experiments on the technique of fine polished stoneware were conducted towards 1800.

It imitates hard stones, such as jasper, porphyre and marble.

This type of production was very expensive and was therefore