*** Welcome to piglix ***

Jean-François Boch


Jean-François Boch (9 March 1782 - 9 February 1858) was a Luxembourg manufacturer. He was a member of the third generation of owners of the family pottery business, Jean-François Boch which at that time had its headquarters at a short distance to the north of Luxembourg City. He became the head of the family firm which, in his time, was known chiefly for industrial production of porcelain tableware and tiles.

Reflecting the variety of languages in common use in Luxembourg, sources may identify him under various different names. Older German language sources may refer to him as Johann Franz Boch or Johann Franz Boch-Buschmann. Luxembourgeois and Dutch language sources may identify him as Jean Boch-Buschmann.

Jean-François Boch was born in the family home at in Luxembourg. His father was the entrepreneur-industrialist (1737-1818) from Lorraine. His mother, born Marie Antoinette Lucie Nothomb, was from Luxembourg.

In 1806 Boch married Anne Marie Rosalie Buschmann (1785-1870), the daughter of a successful master-tanner from St. Vith.

Boch learned the business of industrial pottery from his father. When he was 27 he left his parents' home to set up in business independently, buying in 1809 the baroque Benedictine at Mettlach in the Sarre department. The abbey was available after having been "secularised" in the wake of the French annexation of the region in 1798. Boch set up an ultra modern and highly mechanised ceramics / tableware factory at Mettlach. The machines were operated using hydro-power from a fast flowing stream running into the Sarre on one side of the site. For the ovens used for firing the product, the government imposed the condition that Boch would have to use the soft bituminous coal which was available in abundance locally. This was of technical significance because up to that time no pottery factory in Europe had used this soft coal for its firing ovens. The ovens created at Mettlach were accordingly the first of their kind.


...
Wikipedia

...