The History of Lladro from Spain

Lladró from Spain began as a small family business in a rural town outside of Almacera, Spain in 1953. Three brothers by the names of Jose, Juan and Vincente Lladro began creating porcelain jugs and vases and thus the Lladro company was born. Shortly thereafter, the brothers started creating the detailed porcelain figurines and statues that the Lladro from Spain company is famous for today.

In 1958 the company was seeing an increase in demand and it was time for the company to expand their production capabilities. The brothers moved their production facilities to Tavernes Blanques which later became known as the "City of Porcelain" and home to the Lladro artist training school. In 1962 the brothers opened the school to teach other artist's from around the world how to create the Lladro porcelain figurines.

As word of the porcelain figurines began to spread, the popularity of the Lladro figurines continued to grow. In 1965 the Lladro figurines were brought state side as small gift shops and finer retailers started carrying the Lladro line . In 1988 the first stand alone Lladro store opened, it was The Lladro Museum in New York City. World-wide distribution was just around the corner with Australia being next on the list. In 1999 the Las Vegas Venetian Hotel was the first to open a LLadro Centre. The highly sought after figurines can also be found in the permanent collections of several museums throughout the world. The Hermitage Museum of Saint Petersburg, Russia and The Danto Domingo modern Art Museum in the Dominican Republic are the two largest museum collections known.
It's All About The Logo

As most every collector will tell you, it is all about the Logo. Over time the Lladro from Spain collection has used more than one identifying mark on their figurines. In the early days of the collection, the artist simply signed the base of the porcelain figurine before firing and the signature was a permanent mark. Later the company started using a Greek symbol of a Winged Samothrace and later changed again to the current bellflower. In 1960 the word "Spain" began to appear under the bellflower thus the company being called Lladro from Spain. By becoming familiar with the different logos and their time periods, a savvy collector can quickly tell what era a figurine is from. Several Lladro pieces have other marks on the base but according to Lladro company, these marks do not note anything of significance and are typically caused by the production process.