"For People Passionate About Spanish Porcelain" |
Home Page
LLADRÓ(No Brand Name) Nalda |
|
How "Golden Memories" Became "Just a Memory"-Peggy WhiteneckGolden Memories (GM) was originally conceived as a series within the NAO brand. As such, it was a loosely defined thematic category that was essentially indistinguishable from the rest of the NAO collection. Then, for some unknown reason, the company decided to launch GM as a separate product line in 1992, a move which proved ill-fated. Golden Memories had its own logo (a child lying on his stomach in grass
and flowers with a little dog in front of him), and the logo and series
name were incorporated into a light green backstamp. The copyright dates
on Lladró
The faces of the first-year figures (1992, © 1991) had the greatest affinity with the rest of Lladró. Unfortunately, the manufacturer undercut the resemblance to other Lladó products by failing to use the famous company name in the first-year mark. The first-year models were very thinly potted, of a distinctive ceramic formula and matte texture markedly different from Lladró's regular matte porcelain, and translucent as fine porcelain is supposed to be but rarely is in figurine form. The colors in these models were much more vivid pastels than normally associated with Lladró. These differences all but obscured the similaritities with other Lladró products, and consumers don't seem to have known what to make of the line. The facial features on Golden Memories figurines were completely revamped
in the second year of production (1993, © 1992), and a more traditional
glazed surface was adopted for the line.
In the third year (1994, © 1993), the facial design was revamped yet again. The big, dark eyes developed for the second year figurines were retained, but the faces and noses were more rounded and childlike. A markting gimmick was added with bases that had mystical "shapes" (clover, half-moon, hear, and star) that were supposed to have delinieated themes but were never consistently enough applied to work that way. Golden Memories was a brand in search of an identity it never quite found, and it is difficult to discern a rationale for its introduction. The best theory I've heard is that GM was Lladró's attempt to capture a part of the modestly-priced but volume-lucrative market niche occupied by Enesco's popular "Precious Moments"®. Unfortunately, Lladró had too little experience producing figurines in the lower end of the market to be successful competing within that segment. (The GM-NAO Connection)
|
models are generally the year before issue date, so the dates on the
base of Golden Memories figurines are 1991 through 1993,
corresponding to issue years
of 1992 through 1994.
The eyes were round, large, and
uncharacteristically dark for Lladró, and the facial features appeared squashed and
somehow misshapen. I have always thought of these ugly-duckling, second-year models as
the proverbial "faces only a mother could love."
| Back to Top of Page · Back Home · Contact Us |
The logo background and side border graphic on this site are provided courtesy of Absolute Background Textures Archive (www.grsites.com/textures). All other content and graphics on this site are © Peggy Whiteneck. No reproduction of any part of this content is permitted without the express permission of the web site author.