1880, the oldest
The oldest album goes back to the 1880s. It is bound in leather and contains 21 photographs. Of particular interest are the ones of Paul de Geiger, surrounded by the managerial staff of the factory, views of the Moulin de la Blies, as well as groups of the factory workers.


1892, the most complete
The Museum possesses a series of ten albums, dated 1892, bound in red cloth. The photos, displayed under a passe-partout with a raised décor, are the work of the Parisian photographer De Jongh. This comprehensive document includes external views of the factory, indoor scenes of the workshops, as well as a large number of group portraits of workers and employees of the factory, grouped by service.


1923, the most exhaustive
The last series dates to 1923. The photographs are kept in three bound albums. This is the most exhaustive set, showing successive phases in the manufacture of faience, from the preparation of the clay to the final firing.

The staff
Starting with the first 15 workers when the faience factory was founded in 1790 by Nicolas Henri Jacoby, the number constantly increased throughout the 19th century. By the time Paul Utzschneider retired as director, the factory already had 500 workers.

Under Alexandre de Geiger, the new factories set up in Sarreguemines required more and more manpower, and the number of employees therefore rose considerably. From over 1,000 workers in 1857, the workforce grew to nearly 1,350 on the eve of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870.

During the Annexation and under the management of Paul de Geiger, the factory reached the height of its activity, employing nearly 3,250 workers.


The geographical origin of the workers
Most of these men and women came from the close surroundings of Sarreguemines. Some of them had to walk a long way to work, but as of 1865, with the opening of the railway, many workers came from villages along the railway line. In 1869, the faience factory built the first housing estate to accommodate some of the staff.

As for skilled workers such as firemen, they came from all over Europe, travelling from one faience factory to another in the course of their peregrinations. When one of the factories closed down, the workers were often hired by another one, for example those from the Belgian factory in Tournai moved to Sarreguemines in 1890.

In 1910, Polish labourers arrived in Sarreguemines, sparking off one of the first labour disputes at the factory!

After the First World War, the number of workers gradually diminished.

The Moulin de la Blies Site
The Moulin de la Blies is a vast complex of buildings where the paste needed by the faience works used to be made. In 1998, this industrial unit was transformed into a museum to illustrate the techniques and skills acquired during the 19th and 20th centuries in the art of ceramics.

The industrial wasteland at the back of the museum was turned into a Garden, currently being used as the site for the exhibition At Work in the Faience Factory. In the maze of the old workshops where the clay was once mixed and the paste prepared, thirty-nine photographs depict men and women working at the Moulin itself or in other sections of the factory.

Strolling along the labyrinth of rooms and corridors and contemplating the various portraits, visitors will feel like guests at the factory, meeting workers next to their machines or at their work-stations.


Photography a century ago
Although photography at the end of the 19th century was not an entirely new art, its techniques were less sophisticated than at present. Above all, photographic sessions required long posing sessions. The workers photographed in their workshops must have stood in front of the camera for what seemed like long seconds.

The images are frozen; the men, standing still in front of their machines, look as if they are waiting. The quality of the photographs, however, is exceptional, and the tiniest details of a building or a machine are visible.

Furthermore, a multitude of details can be seen when examining closely the photographs of the groups of workers, such as the variety of aprons worn by the women or the originality of the caps and hats on the heads of most of the men.

A number of clues disclose certain “occupations”. The workers with a piece of leather sewn on their shoulder used to carry the heavy trays of tableware; those with a big wooden spatula prepared the plaster or slip … The coopers look dignified holding their saw or hammer. In certain photographs, the head of the workshop can be seen in the middle of the group proudly posing in his city suit


A selection of 39 photographs waiting to be discovered
The exhibition, which brings to light part of the photographic collection belonging to the Museums of Sarreguemines, presents 39 sepia print photographs: two in a 184 x 280 cm format, twelve in a 92 x 140 cm format, sixteen in a 46 x 70 cm format, and ten in a 23 x 35 cm format.


“The Adventure of Work, Tools and Men”
The exhibition at Sarreguemines is being organized within the framework of an international exhibition entitled “The Adventure of Work, Tools and Men” which is being held at the Coal Museum of Lorraine, Carreau Wendel, at Petite-Rosselle, from 1st June to 1st November 2000.