I previously mentioned the pottery at Nimy-les-Mons in my post on Onnaing. Both potteries were founded by Charles, Knight de Bousies and his cousin Frederick, Baron of Sécus. The pottery at Nimy is the older of the two having been established in Belgium in 1789.
History
The pottery had a long history potting earthenware and faience through the first half of the 19th century alternating between great success and total failure. In 1848 the pottery management was entrusted to François Declercq who owned a successful pottery in Keramis in an effort to save it but eventually in 1849 the pottery was sold. The buyers were Jean-Pierre Mouzin, Théophile Lecat, a potter, and a group of additional shareholders.
Jean-Pierre Mouzin was born in Luxembourg in 1800. In 1823 he married Maria Elizabeth Thiry. His training as an artist brought him work as a painter and decorator in Paris then at Mettlach in Germany, He worked for several potteries between 1824-1834 working at Pescatore Eich, Septfontaines, and Mettlach. On March 15, 1834, he returned to Septfontaines as a workshop manager and was responsible for the new production of opaque porcelain. He also had supervision of the printing workshop and the painting workshop while freelancing at Mettlach doing painting and gilding. In June 1839, he became manufacturing director in Echternac and by 1848 he came to assume the same position in La Louvière where he remained until 1851. While there he purchased the pottery in Nimy with his brother Jean-Baptiste.
In 1851 the pottery at Nimy was reorganized and incorporated under the name Société Mouzin-Lecat et Cie. It was under Mouzin that the pottery began making majolica. In 1858 Mouzin also became administrator of the potteries at Onnaing in France and Wasmuēl also in Belgium.
The period between 1851 and 1890 was the company’s peak period of majolica manufacture. Like many of the majolica designs that originate in Belgium and France, themes relating to nature are the most common with designs sharing a similar look. Glazes tend to be of a pastel nature with floral and natural designs dominating. This shouldn’t be a surprise considering all three manufacturers, Onnaing, Nimy-les-Mons and Wasnuēl, were administrated by the Mouzin family.
In addition to designs originating in their own potteries, Nimy-les-Mons in particular copied numerous designs by English potteries.
After Mouzin's death in 1862 the pottery was managed first by his eldest son Henri-Joseph (who incidentally was married to the daughter of Théophile Lecat) until his death in 1870, then by his younger son Edouard until 1886 when he left to manage the pottery at Onnaing.
In 1890 the company reorganized under the name La Faïencerie de Nimy. By 1897 the factory had grown to a workforce of 675 employees. The following year the company went public. The lack of interest in majolica around the turn of the century affected the company’s prosperity so they turned their attention to other forms of earthenware and faience as their main forms of production.
Decline
The onset of WWI and the invasion of Brussels by Germany in 1914 had a devastating effect on the company, reducing its workforce, export markets and ability to access suitable materials, but still the company had made its niche in faience and decorative earthenware and continued a reduced production. In 1921 the company was sold to Société Céramique de Maëstricht which concentrated its manufacture on faience.
The onset of a second invasion of Brussels by Germany in 1940 at the beginning of World War 2 again severely crippled the company’s export market. A brief resurgence in business between 1943 and 1950 wasn't enough to prevent bankruptcy. The company closed and four years later the pottery was demolished.
Marks
The company used a number of different printed marks on their wares.
Today some of the shapes produced at Nimy are still being reproduced by other companies proving their lasting public appeal.
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