(3) European Made Female Porcelain Figurines. Two of the figures have Asian features and are from Lladro in Spain. The smallest figure is of a woman in clogs with a stick guiding a goose along, and is marked Royal Copenhagen on the underside.
Royal Copenhagen Size: 4 1/2 x 3 x 7 1/4 in.
Sayonara Size: 4 x 4 x 10 1/2 in.
Valencia Size: 5 x 3 1/2 x 7 1/4 in.
Lladró is a Spanish company based in Tavernes Blanques, Valencia, that produces high-end lighting, home accessories, decorative sculptures and porcelain figurines. The company was founded in 1953 by three brothers, Juán, José and Vicente Lladró. Starting with items such as vases and jugs, it wasn’t until 1956 that they started producing the sculptures for which they are now known. In 1962, the brothers opened the Professional Training School at their site in Tavernes Blanques to share their knowledge and experience. In 1969 the City of Porcelain was opened by the Spanish Minister for Industry. It took 2 years to build, and currently employs over 2,000 people. In 1973 Lladró bought 50% of the North American company Weil Ceramics & Glass, expanding their market further. In the late 1980s further subsidiaries were formed in Tokyo and New York City. In 2016 PHI Industrial Acquisitions acquired a majority stake in the Lladró Group, and continues to produce their hard-paste porcelain figures under the family name.
Royal Copenhagen, officially the Royal Porcelain Factory, is a Danish manufacturer of porcelain products that was founded in Copenhagen in 1775 by decree of Danish Dowager Queen Juliane Marie, recognized by its factory mark of three wavy lines above each other, symbolizing Denmark’s three waterways: Storebælt, Lillebælt and Øresund. Europeans, long fascinated by the blue and white porcelain exported from China during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, began to imitate the precious ware in the early 17th Century. The Danish chemist Frantz Heinrich Müller was the first operator of the factory, given a 50-year monopoly to create porcelain, and the factory’s pattern No. 1, still in production, is “Musselmalet” (mussel-painted), known as “Blue Fluted” in English-speaking countries. The blue is cobalt, after a discovery in 1772 of a rich vein of cobalt in Norway, the junior part of the joint kingdom at that time. In 1868 all royal companies were privatized, although the Royal Porcelain Factory chose to keep the designation due to their international recognition by then, and in 1883 the company was bought by Aluminia, an earthenware company. Over the next hundred years they embraced modernist styles, and after multiple acquisitions the company ceased operations in Denmark, with their products now being produced in Thailand.
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