Villeroy & Boch

German maker going back to the Boch family’s pottery of 1748 and the merger with Villeroy in 1836. Known for Mettlach tiles, tableware and sanitary ware.

François Boch started a pottery in Lorraine, and the Boch family acquired a ceramics business in Mettlach. Nicolas Villeroy had a factory in Wallerfangen, and the two companies merged in 1836.

Villeroy & Boch became known for tiles from Mettlach, used in Cologne Cathedral and in public buildings. The company now makes tableware, sanitary ware and tiles.

Marks with Mettlach or Villeroy & Boch and often a castle or the Mettlach tower; impressed numbers for form and year on 19th-century stoneware.

• Ceramics and porcelain