When I was a senior in high school, a great aunt who lived in California was visiting and gave me a figurine for graduation, having heard I have a penchant for these things. I am quite sure she thought it wasnt worth much, and while I thanked her profusely, and kept it on a high shelf and protected as I moved from place to place, I secretly harbored an intention of one day putting it in a garage sale. I mean, there were no discernable creator's mark/manufacture print on the bottom, and while it was pretty, it was not made of very high quality porcelain, and could even be called a bit cheap looking. But I held onto it because I liked such things and the opportunity to give away never came up.
Well YEARS later, after this great aunt had passed on, I was with a friend at a glass show. I was with her out of curiosity more than interest in the various types of glass, so while she hovered over what she was looking for, I wandered about the booths. To my surprise, I came across one booth that had the exact same figure I did! I made a beeline for it because I wanted to at least know who made these figures and thougth maybe the owner could tell me.
Well, I picked up the figure, which was a lady in bell-shaped skirts in grey and burgundy colors who held a crinkled hand-muffler painted in gold, and wore a bonnet that had the same crinkled/poufy decor with gold on it.
You want to know how much I was expecting this little replica to cost? About $15 - $20.
You want to know how much the price tag actually was?
$250.00
I was floored. The owner of the booth wanders over and says "Oh yeah! That's the most expensive piece of the lot that company made because it has gold on it."
Turns out it was a company in California that indeed, sold them in fairly cheap stores as cheap figurines, but since it went out of business, the pieces had become highly collectible.
Wish I could remember the name of that company...
Well, even though we weren't familiar with Lladro, we knew it wasn't cheap stuff.
This one was made in 1969 and has been retired. We'll keep it as an investment for Luke.