This paper seeks to show the wealth of an original visual material: the Bonapartist decorated plates produced by the earthenware manufacturer of Sarreguemines that was a big paternalistic company from Lorraine during the nineteenth century. The owner of this factory, Alexandre de Geiger, was not a “traditional” notable, who had an electoral stronghold under control for generations. In this context, he undertook to develop his economic activities by simultaneously putting a lot of effort into the local political life. Thus, we can analyze the specifically political uses of the illustrations that served the Bonapartist movement and Napoleon III. These plates were produced by the workers of the manufacturer, on Geiger’s initiative, with the aim of selling them. That’s why observing and reading this propaganda medium allows us to make the connection between production, the broadcast and perception(s) of a very rich material, indeed, if we relate it to the evolution of the French system of government from 1836 to 1870, when Geiger was at the head of the earthenware business in Sarreguemines, i.e. the July Monarchy, the Second Republic, and the Second Empire.