Unlike his fathers, Francois Boch, production in Audun le Tiche (France),
which was a small pottery workshop with around 15 workers,
Peter-Joseph had far more ambitious projects
for Septfontaines (Luxembourg).
He wanted to move from craftsmanship to industry.
He planned to use the hydraulic force to activate the potters' turntables
and other machinery.
Septfontaines was therefore the very first industrial production site
of
Villeroy & Boch.
In 1767 the Manufacture started to produce.
Soon, 300 people were working in the factory
and the business was very prosperous.
Having accumulated enough profits to build a home which could comfortably welcome his family,
he decided to adopt the then modern baroque French style also called Louis XV.
The construction started in 1782 and was accomplished in 1783.
The location chosen for the Chateau was just next-door to the factory.
There are two reasons for this:
first of all, he could easily walk to the kilns and other workshops at any time of the day to check how the production was doing.
Secondly, the factory was all his pride and having an industrial site
close to his home was showing of his success
with all the smoking chimneys and the noise of the machinery.
The staff employed in the Septfontaines factory reached very soon 300 people
Unfortunately, the success was soon endangered
by the political events of the French revolution.
After 5 years of terror in Paris and the rest of France,
the French revolution was exported into the Austrian Netherlands and Luxembourg.
In 1794, the French troops invaded Luxembourg and besieged the city.
A morning of 1794, the French troops arrived at Septfontaines where they wanted to establish their headquarters.
Pierre-Joseph and his family were given two hours to leave the Chateau.
The car was pulled out of the garage
and the horses out of their boxes in great hurry.
The maids were asked to prepare some luggage
and to place the cases on the car.
When leaving the chateau, the Chaplain of the local parish passed
in front of the cage of the parrot
who was observing the movements of masters
and servants in the main hall.
One of the maid screamed that if the exotic pet was left behind,
the soldiers would roast it for dinner.
The chaplain picked up the cage and the parrot,
climbed onto the car and placed the cage on his laps.
The car started to move slowly towards the entrance of the property,
everybody looking back,
ignoring if they would ever come back or see again
all what they were leaving behind them:
factory, craftsmen, maids and gardeners
and of course the beautiful chateau,
symbol of the recent industrial success of the Bochs.
After 6 months, the Austrian troops had been able to push
the French troops back to their home country,
and Pierre-Joseph rushed back to Septfontaines
in the hope that the factory could be restarted soon.
What he saw when he arrived was only horror and devastation:
the factory was partly destroyed,
all his craftsmen had disappeared
and the chateau was in a miserable shape:
only the skeleton was still standing.
The winter of 1794 had been very cold and the soldiers,
instead of cutting wood in the nearby forest,
had burnt all the furniture, the doors,
the window frames and even the monumental staircase and its gallery.
Everything had been placed into the fireplace
and ignited to heat the freezing troops who occupied the mansion.
Peter-Joseph was a courageous man:
he immediately started to check the shape of the kilns and the machinery,
hoping that everything could be started again soon.
His craftsmen were soon informed that he had returned
and they came to the factory, offering their services.
Peter-Joseph had another problem: 6 months of inactivity
and life away from home had consumed all his savings:
he was left without a dime.
He told his craftsmen: "my dear friends,
I would love to employ you again, but it is impossible,
because I have no money to pay you".
In those days, workers were paid by the day,
and no cash in the evening meant
that they would not return to work on the next day,
hedging their risk of loosing one day of salary rather than a whole week.
The craftsmen, full of respect and trust in Peter-Joseph
made him the following offer:
"let's start the production anyway.
You will pay us when the merchandise will have been sold".
Soon the factory started again and profits surged.
The maids and gardeners started again to take care of the environment.
Image by Solange Coussement from Old Postcards.lu
After a couple of years,
enough money was available to restore the castle in its pristine shape.
Peter-Joseph went to Bruges
where he could buy beautiful carved wooden panels
from a demolished patrician house.
He brought the panels back to Septfontaines
and installed them in the entrance hall, to cover and protect its walls.
These panels can still be seen today.
In the dining room, over the fireplace,
he hanged a portrait of Maria-Theresa, empress of Austria
who had given him and his brothers her support to establish the factory.
She has also granted the Septfontaines factory the title of
"Imperial and Royal manufacture".
Her army had defeated the French soldiers
and allowed him to return home safely.
In the living room, he asked a plaster sculptor
to decorate the ceiling with beautiful stuccos.
In the middle of the ceiling, in an elliptic medallion,
the emblems of the masonry are depicted.
The Boch’s were masons and found normal to decorate
their living room with the ruler and the compass.
In the 4 corners of the living room, 4 allegoric medallions were carved,
representing the 4 elements needed to produce ceramics:
earth, water, air and fire.
He bought also new furniture for the whole house.
In 1809, the excellent opportunity
of buying the Benedictine abbey of Mettlach (Germany)
gave Peter-Joseph's son
Jean-François Boch the challenge
to expand his business and take a further major step in the direction of the industrialization.
Some years later, after the decease of his father,
Jean-François returned to Septfontaines
and spent the rest of his life in the Chateau.
In 1812, in Septfontaines, Peter-Joseph founded
the first embryo of our modern welfare system called the Antonius Guild.
If one of the craftsmen was ill or dead,
this foundation was contributing to support his family,
protecting them against hunger, diseases or starvation.
On top of this, he built the local church, the school
and most of the houses in the surroundings of the factory,
providing a decent habitat for his workers who
before 1766 were living in caves and grottoes.
The interest and the comfort of his employees counted more
to him than his own welfare or that of his family.
He would have never built the Chateau if he hadn't been able to give his workers better shelter, welfare, life and future.
Jean-François faced many political problems in Septfontaines,
when Luxembourg became independent.
The main market of the factory was Belgium, and because of the customs' union between Germany and Luxembourg,
exports to Belgium became impossible
because of import licenses and prohibitive duties.
He died in Septfontaines.
In the third quarter of the 19th Century,
many adaptations have been made to the Castle:
the fireplace of the living room bares the style of the second French empire
and has obviously been installed around this time.
A conservatory was also built on the terrace behind the castle,
where many flowers and plants including camellias
were growing in an environment of grottoes and follies.
The conservatory was familiarly called "The Congo"
because of the exotic plants grown in this winter garden
and the temperature maintained artificially in winter.
The camellias, which all came from Septfontaines have been depicted and engraved by Nicolas Liez,
an artist who worked a lot for Jean-François.
Maurice Pescatore succeeded to Furcy Raynaud
and Jean-François Boch at the head of Septfontaines
and lived in the castle during that time.
He retired in 1914, and asked to purchase the castle
to be able to spend the rest of his life there.
For the first time, the fate of the factory and the one of the castle were separating.
Maurice Pescatore's daughter,
Magdeleine de Maleingrau inheritated the Castle
and lived there until the end of the 1960's decade.
Once again, the castle was in a very bad shape,
the roof leaking,
a cow grazing in the garden
and most of the treasures being abandoned.
