Antonin Hilaire Boullemier [commonly known as Antonin Boullemier] was born in Sèvres, Hauts de Seine, Ile-de-France, France on 19 January. His father, A. H. Boullemier, worked for Sèvres. He studied painting and music in Paris. Following the Siege of Paris in 1871, in which he was actively involved, he fled to England. In 1872 he joined Minton & Co. as a ceramics painter and subsequently became their highest paid artist. From the early 1890s he worked freelance for the company and for other ceramics firms in Staffordshire. A series of full-page sketches entitled "Les Enfantillages" by him appeared in The Journal of Decorative Art between January-December 1891 Work by Boullemier for Minton was shown in the first exhibition of the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society at the New Gallery in London in 1888.