A little history In the 17th century, Jean Bernard De Bruyn was already running an earthenware factory in Leuven, Belgium. After his death in 1805, his son Martin De Bruyn managed the faience factory, which he then passed on to his son Denis De Bruyn. Antoine Gustave De Bruyn, son of Denis, moved to Fives in 1864. Initially located on rue de Juliers, he moved to rue de Malakoff, before settling on rue de l'Espérance at n°22. It was at this address that the faience factory was built. From 1887 onwards, the first "decorated barbotines" appeared from the De Bruyn faïencerle in Fives-Lille: cache-pots, jugs, tobacco pots, as well as planters and vases, tops, etc. planters and vases, mantelpieces, umbrella stands. In 1889, De Bruyn was awarded a medal at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. In 1917, a fire ravaged the factory, severely disrupting production. At the beginning of the 20th century, the factory employed some 150 workers and covered an area of around 1.4 hectares. By the outbreak of the First World War, the workforce had risen to 400. Sold in the 1950s, the earthenware factory continued to produce before being definitively closed in 1962.