Emaux de Longwy

Longwy lies on the French side of the almost three-country-point: Belgium, Luxemburg en France. The little town has no significant three stars restaurant, but it does have a very nice museum with a fantastic collection of enamel.

Off course: Longwy fabricates still nowadays the most fabulous objects, one should surely go and visit, but also just as in the earlier days less spectacular objects, which makes one think: "shouldn't the have stopped at a previous time ? Was further decoration that sensible ? Is much and overwhelming always beautiful ?" But their more successful exotic beauty of most of their objects d'art luckily overshadows their lesser work.
The manufacturing of the Longwy pottery started in 1798 with the take over of an old Carmelite monastery, where, during the Empire of the little emperor, a service for : "Les Maisons de la Légion d'Honneur" got ordered and delivered. After the siege of 1815, J. A. Nothomb, together with his partner Christine Boch, perfectionized the clay-past. Their grandchildren, Hyppolite and Henri-Ferdinand d'Huart reacted brilliant on the overwhelming attention for the ceramics from the Middle East. The added the Cloisonné technique to their objects d'art and that was a shot in the rose.

The art of enamel, which is no more than a glassy decorative, usually colored and opaque, that is fused onto metals and ceramics, was already known in the first millennium. There were two methods known: the "émail champlevé" and the "émail cloisonné". With the "champlevé" technique there were put hollows in the metal, which were filled with enamel. With the "cloisonné" technique there were put metal threads on the object, the fences, which were later filled with enamel. This last technique was often used by d'Huart brothers and they developed it further. The metal cords were replaced by clay and painted black which held off the enamel and articulated the fantastic colors.

Art Deco tazza, Pomone Bon Marché, 1925

For example to achieve the beautiful blue color, Longwy used copperoxyde, for the purple they used gold and for the green chroomoxyde. The articulation of these vivid colours with black was a innovation that won Longwy a lot of medals on different occasions.

"Boule Koloniale", M.P. Chevallier, 1925

The production process used by Longwy is very intensive and costly. All over the world there are many admirers of this style. Many well known artists worked for Longwy during the many years since their founding. For instance Maurice Paul Chevallier (since 1925) the designer of the famous "Boule Coloniale". Chevallier's nephew worked for Boch Frères in La Louvière under Charles Catteau. Probably this explains the resemblance between the work of Longwy and Boch Frères Keramis. The artists changed their jobs between the two companies, which lie close to each other.

Longwy knew different style periods. They were influenced by Japan, Persia, Egypt and Iznik. The Art Nouveau, was covered and went over in the stylized Art Deco. Within all these different styles Longwy created many, much sought after, collectors items and that makes this company very interesting.

By the way a visit to the Museum in Longwy is recommended. They have the most beautiful objects from the ateliers of Longwy. Should there be time left to you then we can recommend a meal in the "Auberge des 3 Canards" (69 Route de Lorraine, Cosnes et Romain), where master cook Pierre Cochart and his wife Nelly will receive you with open arms (reservation recommended). The name of their restaurant reveals their specialty. Next to their very high standard cooking, they also collect Longwy ceramics, which consist of over 1500 different plates.