Mettlach, Villeroy & Boch Dishes

(2 photos)
Blocks of factories in Mettlach and Merzig are busily producing the ceramic table settings, bath room fixtures, ceramic tile, and other products of Villeroy & Boch. These bowls had been fired, then a decal is placed by hand, then it is dipped in something (I’m not a professional dish maker!), then fired again.

Each year, Emmy has bought a variety of dish-ware from Villeroy & Boch. Over the years three or four small items have been broken in the dozen suitcases (chock full of dishes padded by our clothes) that we have checked on the airplane, but all the packages we have mailed have arrived in California with no breakage.

One year Emmy’s friend Carol, asked if she would mind buying a complete set of dishes, and spare no expense. I thought that spending someone else’s money should have satisfied Emmy’s craving for Villeroy & Boch products, but it just whetted her appetite. I don’t have an exact number, but the difference in cost between what Emmy paid at the employee store in Mettlach (with Toni's employee card), and the cost to buy the same items at Macy’s, was in the thousands of dollars.
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The Company headquarters in Mettlach is located in an old (mid1700s) red limestone Benedictine Abbey with a beautiful Baroque façade. Three generations of Emmy’s “Cousins” have worked for this company, and at the time of her retirement, Cousin Toni was the secretary for Herr von Boch.