Plat Villey, Longchamp

In 1830, Claude Phal-Matiron, a building contractor in Auxonne, founded a tile factory in Longchamp to which he added an earthenware factory three years later. In 1847 the factory employed forty-one workers with a turnover of 16,950 francs before being enlarged in 1862 by Mr. Phal-Blondo, architect and son of the founder of the company who succeeded him in 1866. Two years later, the latter sold the faience factory to Marcel and Robert Charbonnier, two engineers who created the Faïenceries et tuileries de Longchamp, improved production and joined forces with Dijon artists (Trochot, Marie, Guillaume, Damann) to create models and decorations.

In 1914, the company, which had been taken over by Gaëtan Moisand two years earlier, was classified as a “war industry” in order to produce tableware for hospitals. At the end of the war, Mr. Moisand continued to modernize the factory by working, for example, with the Primavera workshop of the Magasins du Printemps. After his death in 1945, his widow and his sons took over the company and in 1947 they created a professional school for decoration, modeling and shaping. In 1964, the company had 230 employees and produced four million pieces per year, which were sold mainly in department stores (Samaritaine, Galeries Lafayette, Bon Marché, etc.) and 15% internationally (United States and about 20 other countries).

Between 1975 and the end of the eighties, the establishment was taken over by Villeroy&Boch in 1990 before closing its doors for good in 2009.