Baxter prints on Sarreguemines China
Baxter prints being used as the basis for designs on china / porcelain are not rare. Baxter's and even Le Blond's ovals can be found on plates and other wares. A number, sometimes exact copies, formed the basis of a number of Potlids, Prattware and associated wears. Baxter nor his plates were involved in the process, just forming the basis for the design but Alfred Reynolds, one of Baxter's earliest apprentices is credited with inventing the process to print colour images on to china, more details can be read about him in our Baxter Apprentices page
A collector from France contacted me a few years ago for some background information on a set of 12 plates with images all based on Baxter Prints. The plates were produced by a French porcelain manufacturer called Sarreguemines, based in a French town of that name. The pottery was established in 1784 and was patronised by Napoleon. Over the years they have made many types of earthenware, stoneware and porcelain pieces. I am not too sure if they are still in existence today but they were in 1978 when they appear to be making china for the catering industry.
I have been told these plates were manufactured around the end of the 19th century, the factory was bombed during World War II and most of the archives destroyed so this can’t be accurately confirmed.
One of the Sarreguemines plates and another image showing the potters mark on the reverse
They are described as a set of twelve ‘English Views’ - all are copies of Baxter prints although interestingly, and I can’t find any reason for it, three have had their names changed. The titles, verbatim, with any different Baxter titles in brackets are:
Cader idris Lugellaw Lake (Lake Luggellaw)
Llangollen Welsh drovers
Buildwas abbey (Netley Abbey) Brichton chain pier (Brighton Chain Pier)
Mac-Aulay castle (Stolzenfels on the Rhine) Crucis abbey
River tiefy Steinbach river (Bolton Abbey)
Windsor castle Lake como
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Steinbach (Stonebrook) is an area of Sarregueines but is doesn’t have an Abbey, and we can’t find any trace of a Mac-Aulay Castle or Buildwas Abbey. So why did a French porcelain factory use Baxter Prints as a basis for the sets design?
When you look at the dates all these views were produced by Baxter around 1850, could these plates have been produced at that time when Baxter was at the height of his popularity? But why France? The town’s history might just give us the answer. The town currently sits near the border of France and Germany but between the years of 1870 and 1918 the town was actually in Germany, a country that we know was very fond of Baxter’s prints, please see Baxter’s Agents in Germany or perhaps the plates were designed by someone who had purchased Baxter’s prints some 40 years earlier?
Top left Sarreguemines Buildwas Abbey and bottom left Baxter's Netley Abbey that it was based on.
Below images of the twelve plates from this set
Lake Como
River Teify
Crucis Abbey
Buildwas Abbey - Baxter's Netley Abbey
Brichton Chain Pier - Baxter's Brighton Chain Pier
Windsor Castle
Steinbach River (Baxter's Bolton Abbey)
Cader Idris
Mac-Auley Castle - Baxter's Stolzenfels on the Rhine
Lugellaw Lake - Baxter's Lake Luggellaw
Welsh Drovers
Llangollen