El Portal Porcelana

"For People Passionate About Spanish Porcelain"

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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!

Other Spanish Porcelain Companies

- Peggy Whiteneck

Although Lladró and Nadal are the best-known names in 20th century Spanish porcelain, there are many other porcelain figurine companies concentrated in the Valencian region of Spain. According to Liane McAllister, in a January 1997 article in the trade journal Gifts and Decorative Accessories ("Valencia: Spanish Ceramics Show Growing Pains And Pluses"), Lladró controls about 70% of this Valencian porcelain market, with all other companies slugging it out for the remaining 30% of market share.


This horse was made by Mirmasu, one of Lladró's many Valencian competitors. The model is quite nice on its own terms, but it takes no technical risks. Note that only one of the horse's legs is separately articulated - and its solid anchoring calls attention to the modeler's apparent reluctance to get too adventurous. (Photo by the author.)

This page is devoted to the better-known of those companies, all of which have been heavily influenced by the style popularized by Lladró - even though most have had limited success in competing with its quality. (I have long felt these companies would have been better off trying to develop a style of their own rather than settling for a poor imitation of Lladró's.)

The list posted below consists of the names of Valencian (mostly) companies that I know about. Very few of these companies export, and their products end up on the secondary market beyond Spain, particularly on eBay®, as an indirect consequence of tourist travel to and from that country. Few of these mostly quite small companies have any internet presence; in fact, "Tengra" and "Galos" are the only ones on the list that have their own web sites, and I've made their names a live link to their respective sites. (English translations on these sites are pretty bad, but you can usually get the gist.) As web site marketing proliferates and sites become easier to build, more of these companies may eventually be found on the web. In the interim, perhaps the best way to find examples of them is to do an eBay search of their names (followed by the word "porcelain" as some of these names are fairly generic). It's also likely that at least some of the companies on the list are no longer in production.

Various Spanish Porcelain Companies
  • Tengra
  • Galos
  • Miguel Requeña
  • Rex
  • Mirmasu
  • Casades
  • Raimond
  • Porceval
  • Inglès
  • Algora
  • D'Art
  • Porregamo
  • Castilla
  • Torralba
  • Dalia
  • Jando
  • Pales
  • Segarra

More

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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