Time-tested production process makes Lladro stand out

By Mark Hansel

Friday, April 24, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Porcelain products are among the most collectible items on the market.

From simple figurines to elaborate works that take years to create, there is something about the process of transforming ceramic materials into artistic figures that make the items hard for many to resist.

Among the most valued pieces are those by Lladro, a family-owned company founded more than half a century ago, which has retail stores in Las Vegas in the Venetian’s Grand Canal Shoppes and at the Fashion Show mall.

Rosa Lladro, company president, was in Las Vegas recently at the Lladro store at the Venetian to introduce the Iris and Cherry Flowers Fan, a limited-edition piece (only 2,000 were made).

Lladro is the daughter of Vicente Lladro, one of three brothers that started the company in Valencia, Spain, in 1953.

Lladro said the company’s products are sought after because it sticks to the same meticulous process that her father and uncles used.

“The workshop is just like it was then, only bigger,” Lladro said. “It’s like a small workshop repeated many times and you can’t do it any other way. The essence is the same and the work is the same.”

With thousands of porcelain figurines on the market, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish one brand from another, but Lladro pieces stand out.

Lladro said that is because the artisans begin the process with a clear focus of what each piece should represent, and the process is never rushed.

Some, for example, focus on a period in history or a specific culture and great care is taken to capture not only time but the emotion.

Pieces range from the spiritual “Jesus in the Tiberiades” and “Shakyamuni Buddha” to the emotional “The Gift of Life,” which portrays a mother with a newborn child to the whimsical “Circus” pieces that feature clowns. Collections include “Around the World,” “Romanticism,” “Animals,” “Families and Motherhood” and “Christmas Ornaments.”

The company also has a collection of high porcelain pieces that are always limited editions and sometimes unique. High porcelain pieces represent the highest standards of excellence, technical perfection and expressiveness and are subject to the most demanding standards of any Lladro pieces.

The most spectacular example in the Venetian collection is the “Queen of the Nile,” a limited-edition high porcelain piece of which only 100 exist.

The piece features Egyptian Queen Nefertari in an ornately decorated boat with her children and several servants. It took five years to make and each piece was separately crafted as was the vessel itself. Nefertari, wife of Pharaoh Ramesses II, was one of the most influential female political figures in ancient Egyptian history.

The price tag for the piece, which at more than 5 feet in length is the biggest artistic and technical creation ever made by Lladro, is $150,000.

Few people can afford that kind of investment, but Lladro said the beauty of the collection is that they don’t have to.

Pieces start at a few hundred dollars and the collection is so vast most people can find something they like in their price range. Lladro pieces almost always increase in value, sometimes dramatically, after they have been retired. Web sites dedicated to the sale of Lladro figurines show increases in value of 400 percent or more for some retired pieces.

This commitment to the art of creating porcelain figurines is the reason Lladro thinks the company will always be family owned.

“I don’t think anyone would want to buy a company with more than 1,500 people creating handmade products that can take so long to make,” Lladro said. “It’s very important for us to keep the business in Valencia and to do it this way.”

People who collect Lladro pieces often have favorite themes (Lladro admits to an affinity for floral designs), but tend to expand the assemblage to include several others over time.

“Many start with a theme and they collect dogs or pieces with children,” Lladro said. “At the end, you know, they collect everything.”

Mark Hansel covers retail and marketing for In Business Las Vegas and its sister publication, the Las Vegas Sun. He can be reached at 259-4069 or at [email protected].