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LLADRÓ
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          (Retired 2011-12)
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      (Zaphir Catalog)
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     (Hispania Catalog)

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Nadal

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   Nalda

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Nadal Porcelain

-Peggy Whiteneck

Little is known about Nadal outside Europe, but although it has only a fraction of the market that has been generated by the more ambitious Lladró company, collectors who encounter Nadal on the secondary market are intrigued by it and impressed with its obvious quality. And, thanks to alert Lladró collector Jorge L. Gonzalez, we now know that Nadal Porcelain does, indeed, have a web site! ( Click Here. ) On the opening page, you can click on your preferred language version, Spanish or English.

Founded in 1915, the Nadal Porcelain company is probably the oldest extant contemporary fine porcelain manufacturer in the Valencian region of Spain. It was formerly noted for its unusual mixture of matte and gloss surfaces within the same model. Today, its standard finish is either a gloss or something very much akin to Gres in the Lladró line.

I don't find the range of themes treated in the Nadal corpus to be as broad as that in Lladró. Nadal has had a strong interest in Egyptian motifs and has done a number of Gres figurines and busts on Egyptian themes.

Nadal's "Offering to Osiris" is a limited edition of 5000 that expresses Nadal's aesthetic interest in Egyptian themes. It currently retails at $575.

I'm constantly getting emails from collectors wanting identifications of and information about their Nadal figurines, sometimes complaining that the company is not responsive to their questions. Sorry, but I, too, have found this company a difficult nut to crack. If anyone out there in cyberspace has one or more old retail catalogs for Nadal that they'd be willing to copy and send to me, I could do a Nadal web catalog here on "El Portal Porcelana." Please email me if you could help with that info. In the interim, a picture catalog of all their current issues can be found on their own web site (click on the company link above.) Sorry...I'd help if I could, but that's the best I can do for now. So please don't email me asking for particular Nadal figurine IDs. :o)

Nadal doesn't appear to have a strong export presence outside Spain and the UK. The lack of global market penetration would go some way to explaining why these very expensive-to-make figurines seem to go for next to nothing on eBay - making them a great collecting opportunity for those who want something beautiful and don't care a great deal about resale, at least in the short to mid-term. (I am not prescient enough to predict the long term prospects for Nadal secondary market values - beyond noting that one of the reasons Lladró has been so relatively successful as a secondary market phenomenon is its international retail market and the global reputation and brand recognition resulting from that presence.)

This enchanting little miss is Nadal's "Dreamy Afternoon," priced at $210.

I can, however, say, from my own experience and from that of other people who contact me about other-than-Lladró brands, including this one, that it's no fun collecting things one can't identify as to model number, name, or period of production. An inherent part of collectibility, in porcelain as in any other medium, is knowing what the thing is, which means having specific information available about it. This, too is a factor in why Lladró has achieved the market penetration it has while other Spanish porcelain producers haven't been able to come close: Lladró provides collector catalogs, retail catalogs, and historic catalogs on its web sites for both its main bran and NAO that help collectors specifically identify what they have.

(Please note a possible source of confusion: Nadal porcelain in Spain is not the same company as the Lladró secondary market dealership in the United States that was owned by a family that happened to have the same surname.That US-based company sold Lladró products and was a respected source for secondary market Lladró for many years though I believe it is no longer in business.)

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 Lladó 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