Looking for Information on a Villeroy & Boch Wallerfangen Decorative Plate

[Clueless American]

Firstly I would like to apologize for using English, though I have no other choice as I do not know German. I am looking for information about a decorative plate that someone on my mother's side brought over from Germany. Any information at all would be wonderful. I am only posting here as the only mention of this specific plate that I could find comes from a user on this site by the name of "Tellerwäscher", hopefully someone knows something as my family is very curious about this plate.

- Ronald

Marking 2.jpg (52.9 KiB) 609 mal betrachtet

Plate Image 1.jpg (179.45 KiB) 609 mal betrachtet

Marking 1.jpg (38.95 KiB) 609 mal betrachtet

[nux]

Hello and welcome Ronald :slightly_smiling_face:

no reason to worry about English, it's ok - if you can stand my grammar & mistakes

first of all (for all) the link to the 'old' question you mentioned, which - unfortunately - had no answers then Suche Infos zu 2 Villeroy & Boch Tellern mit Inschrift

secondly - do you already have a translation for the inscription? really short it would be 'own hearth is worth gold' - sth like 'home, sweet home'. It is an old saw, meaning that to settle down, independency, autonomy, freedom to make your own decisions, liberty has a very high significance.

thirdly - timeline: diving into the history of the manufacturer follows via translator. There you can read, that the earthenware factory in Wallerfangen / Vaudrevange was originally founded by Nicolas Villeroy in 1791. At that time it was a french (small) city/town but since 1815 it belonged to Prussia, from 1871 to Germany. The merger with the rival in business Jean-François Boch happened in 1836. The company and name Villeroy & Boch came into beeing.
[Gäste sehen keine Links] - and
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[Gäste sehen keine Links]

In 1887 Britain issued the Merchandise Marks Act [Gäste sehen keine Links] - products labelled with 'Made in Germany' can't have been manufactured before that date
"In 1920 Wallerfangen became part of the Saar area agreed in the Treaty of Versailles. The products of the Wallerfangen factory got the addition 'Made in Saar-Basin' on their stamp."
"In 1931, the Wallerfangen factory had to be closed after 140 years of existence in the wake of the stock market crash on New York Wall Street on Black Thursday (October 24, 1929) and the subsequent global economic crisis." Only in 1935 the annexation of the Saar area to the 'German Reich' was completed - so that marks like that on your plate have to be earlier.

Some Wallerfangen marks are shown there f.e. [Gäste sehen keine Links] - the type 1874-1909 should be the applicable one, so we can then reduce the date/period of origin to 1888-1909

The 59 on the backside probably is the pattern no. (of the painted/stamped or 'sponged' flowers motif), as all plates with the same flowers do have it. The lettering seems to be (decal?) printed.
Moreover - you will not only find such plates with sayings, there are more pieces decorated with this kind of flowers? some older and also later dated ones?
[Gäste sehen keine Links] (has nothing to do with Art Deco)
[Gäste sehen keine Links]
[Gäste sehen keine Links]

There is a book/catalogue on Wallerfangen stoneware partially online and some snippets could be found from it. Luckily this number showed up, p. 381 "59 - Bauernmuster (farmers pattern)" on a whole bunch of different dishes with dates of production [Gäste sehen keine Links]

then have a look at the end of the right column - there are the (four) plates with sayings mentioned - also the one with 'Suche das Glück nicht weit, es liegt in der Häuslichkeit' - Don't look for luck/happiness afar [as] it lies in domesticity'

And for the smaller versions 1909 is listed as date of origin. The plate/saying you have as well as the other in the triggering post is not mentioned there - perhaps it was not known to the author then? vice versa - I haven't seen an example of one or the other sayings described in the catalogue.

The impressed mark I cannot explain; could be model no. or production relevant.

Regards
nux

[Clueless American]

Thank you so much for answering, I already had an idea on the date from some basic stamp research but I had no idea about the "Made in Saar-Basin" stamp, so it is at least 10 or 20 years older than I thought it was. This is so much more information about this plate than I was expecting, again, thank you so much, my mom has had this plate for her entire life and we've known next to nothing about it until now. Your English is wonderful by the way, better than some native speakers I know. :slightly_smiling_face:

[nux]

I am pleased when you are :relaxed: and thank you for such a charming compliment :relieved: