Description
c1900 Fenal Freres Pexonne Marcelle Customized Plate. Interesting likely one of a kind item, I'm not sure if it was made by a factory worker or if they sold customized plates at one point. It's over 100 years old with no cracks, chips, restorations, or crazing. 8.75" wide. Hand painted with an underglaze stencil of the name. It is one of the oldest in Lorraine. (1720). Through many disappointments, earthenware will change hands 7 times in 100 years. From 1836, it was entirely owned by Nicolas Fenal, a farmer, who suddenly found himself the owner of this pottery. When he died in 1857, his children and nephews took over from him and created the Fenal Frères (FF) brand. One of the nephews, Théophile Fenal, created his own factory in Badonviller, after a turbulent period in Pexonne. The factory competes with that of his family in Pexonne. After the war of 1870, with the arrival of immigrants from Sarreguemines, the quality of the earthenware from Pexonne changed. Modernly designed ovens are set up and old colored paste earthenware gives way to white paste and transparent enamel. The creation of the Baccarat-Badonviller railway line which serves the Pexonne plant promotes development. In 1897, the Fenal Frères joint ownership - uncles and nephews - registered its marks. It is the Golden Age of the manufacture which will reach 389 workers in 1900. The production, not always identified, will be very varied (from crockery to earthenware stoves) and of good quality. tw193 The life of the workers of the earthenware factories of Pexonne at the beginning of the XX ° century was hard. They came - women, men and children - from Pexonne, Fenneviller but also from Neufmaisons and Badonviller. Everyone went to work in sneakers in summer and clogs in winter, in the dust and under the sun in the summer, in the snow in the winter. Daily work was since the law of 1848 "limited" to 12 hours. A law of 1892 had however reduced the work of women to 10 hours ...... The workers of Neufmaisons and Badonviller brought their midday meal in "camp pots" but for the majority of them, it was the wife or the eldest daughter who would carry the meal to Pexonne. Hard, hard, life in 1900, for the workers of the “Belle Epoque”… .. The First World War will seriously damage the Pexonne factory. Quickly rebuilt and modernized, the earthenware will again suffer attacks during the Second World War. August 27, 1944 is a dark day for the town: 80 deportees (of which only 17 will return from the camps). M. de Vitry is among the dead, as is his son Guy. M. de Villermont, mayor of the village will be shot. Life resumed in October 1945 at the earthenware factory, with the production of useful articles, soon to be improved. Exports are resuming, particularly to North Africa. But the ravages of war will leave fatal traces: the equipment is defective, production drops. The coup de grace will come in 1953 with the final shutdown of the generator which supplies the plant with motive power. The factory will close… ..
