El Portal Porcelana

"For People Passionate About Spanish Porcelain"

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LLADRÓ
   Regular Collection
   NAO
      (NAO Catalog)
          (Retired 2004)
          (Retired 2005)
          (Retired 2006)
          (Retired 2007)
          (Retired 2008)
          (Retired 2009-10)
          (Retired 2011-12)
   Rosal
   Tang
     (More About Tang)
     ("Unmarked" Tang)
   Zaphir
      (Zaphir Catalog)
   Golden Memories
       (GM Catalog)
   Hispania
     (Hispania Catalog)

Made in Spain
(No Brand Name)

Nadal

Other Companies
   Nalda

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For those interested in glass figurines, Fenton Art Glass Beasts, Birds & Butterflies is another of Peggy's books!



Also for those interested in glass, Fenton Art Glass Fairy Lamps & Lights is Peggy's latest book! It focuses on small, candle-lit "lamps" that were first used in the Victorian era to light dark hallways before the invention of gaslight or electricity.

The publisher for these Fenton books has gone out of business, but I am pursuing other publishing options for revised and expanded editions. Stay tuned! In the meantime, you may still find advance-ordered and used copies of these books at online booksellers.

"More on Identical Models Found with Multiple Marks!"

-Peggy Whiteneck

Recently, I was contacted by a collector by the name of Jose Juan Nadal Cuesta, who has an amazing collection of some of the oldest NAO models but with various marks. This includes a complete collection of all the early cat models, all the early stylized dove models, an entire early rabbit collection, and both the early dog with and without snail models. His collection includes some models that I never knew existed, including a reclining cat from the very earliest NAO cats ever made and a double model of the stylized doves that I had never seen before.

Because of the extensive nature of this collection, I felt it was worth an entire page of its own on this web site, and I'm extremely grateful to Jose Nadal for providing all the photos seen on this page together with explanatory titles. (See also this Rosal page for a photo of a squirrel model from Jose's collection.)

All the single model doves in this photo are known to have been made with both impressed NAO and impressed regular Lladró marks. The double model, however, is one I'd never seen before Jose sent me this photo. (

For the doves, the marks are an impressed Lladró and impressed NAO. For the collection of cats, note that the reclining cat had previously been unknown to me, and Jose's could well be the only complete set of these cats in existence. The marks are as follows: impressed NAO, Tang, and no mark at all - not even a country of origin. These last were probably marked with original paper labels that may have been either Lladró or Tang.





In this photo, there are five distinct models in the series. Although I had previously seen a photo of the curled up cat from another source, the reclining cat at lower right is new to me. (Photo courtesy of Jose Juan Nadal Cuesta.)

One of the dogs with snail is marked with a blue and white paper Lladró label, which could also account for some items that have shown up, both in Jose's collection and elsewhere, with no mark at all but that are obviously made by Lladró.

The rabbits, of which there are five distinct models in this pjoto, are likewise perhaps the only complete collection of these models known. One is marked with a blue backstamp "Made in Spain." For the stretching rabbit shown at the lower left of the photo, note that another collector has a very similar version with a green Zaphir backstamp (but with both ears laid against the animal's back vs. one ear raised in Jose's model). All of the rabbits on the lower row of the photo are very similar, if not identical, to very early catalogued versions with decimal-point serial numbers in the regular Lladró collection. (The left-right orientation appears opposite, but this could be a function of Lladró's cataloguing photography, which is notorious for reversing photographic negatives in its publications.)
Dog with Snail in both matte (left) and glazed versions and the paper Lladró label on one of them.







Jose's collection of matte and glazed rabbits with various Lladró brand marks. These are similar to old models found in the regular collection, and a variant version of the rabbit at lower left of the photo has also been found with a Zaphir mark. (Photo courtesy of Jose Juan Nadal Cuesta.)

As previously shown in a dog model from Jose Luis Gonzalez's collection, Jose's Nadal's collection proves that items marked with a blue Made in Spain backstamp may actually be Tang. Jose Nadal's collection also shows that unmarked items may be either Tang or even early regular collection Lladró from which paper stickers have gone missing. (Some of them may also be Rosal, as we know that Lladró conceived of that brand for a specific competitive purpose and did not expect to keep it in production very long; consequently, the company marked many items in that brand with paper labels though they can also occasionally be found with impressed brand name marks.)

In this photo of a little girl holding a cat, the item is marked with a Tang sticker that would easily have come loose from such items; the under-base is marked simply "Made in Spain" in a cobalt blue backstamp. (Photo courtesy of Jose Juan Nadal Cuesta.)

It would have made little sense to have produced the models simultaneously with different marks, so, based on that logic, it has been my assumption that the marks represent some kind of chronological and evolutionary sequence in Lladró brands. However, it remains unclear what that sequence was and which of the brands came first.

At Last - A New Lladró Book!

The Lladró Guide; A Collector's Reference to Retired Porcelain Figurines in Lladró Brands

My most recent Lladró book has revised and expanded content and remains the only book in print on this topic that isn't just a catalog. Covers all Lladró and Lladró-affiliated brands (regular collection, NAO, Zaphir, Golden Memories, Hispania, Rosal, and Tang) and tells how to distinguish them from imitations and counterfeits. Revised and expanded content includes many new photos and a new chapter on future directions for collectors and the company now that it has passed from family hands. The book is in hard cover, which eliminates that annoying curl-up that happens with paperback books. You can order the book directly from the publisher, Schiffer Books, on Amazon, or from your favorite bookstore using the ISBN 13 number 978-0764358395.

Warning: If you're looking for a catalog of every retired figurine Lladró ever made, this is not the book for you. If you're looking for beautiful, full-color photos of representative models and more in-depth and well-researched information about Lladró and its history and production than you can get in thumbnail photos with captions, this book is what you're looking for.

Retail Price in Hardcover: $45


Please Note: El Portal Porcelana is an information web site ONLY. While I very much welcome email contacts from serious collectors or anyone else wanting more information on Spanish porcelain, please do not ask me for sales or acquisition assistance, as those areas are not my bailiwick.

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