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Now Out of Print


Coming Soon!

The Lladró Brand Book;
A Collector's Guide
to Retired Porcelain
Figurines Made by Lladró
forthcoming from
Old Line Publishing!

The Hispania Company

-Peggy Whiteneck

This Hispania leopard cub is one of several nearly lifesize items made in the Hispania collection under Lladró's ownership in the decade of the 1980s. (It measures a foot high and a foot long!) Note the uncharacteristic use of primary colors. (Photo by the author from her own collection.)

Hispania was more than just another brand; it was an actual company, one of several in which the budding Lladró brothers were apprenticed to their craft beginning in the 1940s. The Hispania company was founded in 1941 and was most noted for its production of earthenwares and majolica, primarily decorative items such as vases, frames, planters, and the like. After the Lladró brothers became successful, they bought their old company and tried to make a "go" of it throughout the decade of the 80s before closing it in 1989.



These Hispania "centerpieces" that date from Lladró's ownership of the Hispania company would have been typical of the types of decorative housewares this company made throughout its history. (Photo from a Hispania catalog of the 1980s.)

Under Lladró's ownership, the Hispania corpus included several quite large animals, of a scale to which traditional porcelain is unsuited but that can be done in earthenware. (One of these dogs, a model of a seated Great Dane, measures almost three feet tall!) However, the staple of the brand remained its decorative wares.

It is virtually impossible to set values on Hispania wares; they don't appear to have had much market penetration beyond Spain and are little known to collectors. The animal models can be expected to be as popular as animal models in pottery and porcelain usually are, however, and mint examples of the nearly-lifesize Hispania menagerie are usually not lacking for bidders on those rare occasions when they appear on eBay®. The one caveat I would have for collectors is a caution about condition. The animals are thinly potted in a not-very-durable ceramic formula and are thus vulnerable to damage.

Coming Soon from Old Line Publishing!

Posted 2/28/10

I'm so pleased to be able to announce, at last, that my latest book, The Lladró Brand Book, is forthcoming this spring from Old Line Publishing in Hampstead, Maryland, USA! The manuscript is well underway, but I would love it if collectors could send me a CD with photos of the individual items in their collections. The book will cover all the Lladró brands: regular collection, NAO, Zaphir, Rosal, Hispania (animal and bird figurines), and Golden Memories. The book will focus exclusively on retired figurine models in these brands. The photos need to be in a large format and at least 300dpi in resolution. Those contributing photos will be mentioned on the Acknowledgments page of the book as well as in individual photo credits. If you can help, please email me. I'd love to include your collection in my book!

For advance sales information and/or to reserve your copy, please contact my publisher directly by clicking on the link for Old Line Publishing!

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