Curiouser and Curiouser!
Oldest Lladró Found
with Rosal Marks
by Peggy Whiteneck
Much of the model evidence I have for Rosal comes to me from collector
Robert E. (Gene) Woods. Recently, he sent me a fascinating photo of what
certainly looks to me to be the rare core collection "Pheasant" model #331.13,
which - in the core collection - dates to 1973. There are
some minor differences in coloration, but there is no apparent difference
in the modeling itself. Gene's pheasant, however, bears an impressed Rosal mark (pictured on
page 1 of the Rosal section of this web site).
If we could run a DNA test on porcelain,
I'd wager this Rosal-marked pheasant would turn out to be an identical twin to
that rare and highly sought-after early core collection Lladró
#331.13. It has an impressed mark that just says Rosal. Recall
that this brand was not made for export, so there was no reason
to add so much as a "Made in Spain" to the simple mark. [Photo courtesy of
Gene Woods]
More recently, collector Raffi Souvalian sent me pictures of his
magnificent polar bear, marked with an impressed Rosal mark. This
model turns out to be an identical clone of the very early core collection
rarity, model #328.13.
This model #328.13 "Polar Bear" is catalogued by
Lladró
as a rare core collection model from 1965. This one,
however, has a Rosal mark. It's probable that some of the decimal-numbered
models from the 1960s were actually unmarked Rosal, which was in production
for only four or five years in the early to mid 1960s. [Photo courtesy of Raffi
Souvalian from his private collection]
It isn't possible, given the current state of knowledge,
to definitively account for NAO and/or Rosal clones of the earliest, decimal-point-numbered models from
the core collection - those Lladró models considered most rare
and, consequently, most keenly sought after by collectors. It does, however,
become increasingly
probable that at least some of the models, among those made in the
early to mid 60s, that have been traditionally listed as "decimal-point"
models in the regular collection are actually early Rosal or NAO.
Lladró freely admits it did not keep
accurate early production records (for, as to the company's eventual fame,
who knew then what we know now?).
Given that reality, it would be pretty difficult to distinguish between an
unmarked core collection museum piece from Lladró's earliest years and
an unmarked Rosal from the same era and from which the sticker had become
detached.
So what does all this mean? For my "take" on the collecting implications of these
new discoveries, see
this page of the web site.
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