Collectible Figurines - Period Costume Lady

by Garry Cumming
(UK)

Collectible Figurines - Period Costume Lady:- Hi my mum bought me a figurine for my wife for her birthday but we cannot read the marks, i have taken some pictures to send you.

The reason for the question is we are getting items insured and we have been told that this is possibly 18th century and worth something, so would like to get it insured to that fact.

Hope you can help

Thanks in advance

Garry

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Reply by Tonyy (admin research)

to Collectible Figurines - Period Costume Lady

Dear Gary,

You have a lovely collectible figurine but I am not sure about its history. I do not recognize the mark - and your rather blurry picture is not so helpful.

It could easily be modern European porcelain, but very unlikely to be old. It looks to be not dis-similar in modeling style to modern repro 'Dresden' decorators of the 1960's like Martha Budich or Karl-Heinz Klette or Franz Sieber (originally of Rudolstadt, Thuringia) or Gisela Keilhauer.

For all the information we have on Budich, Klette Seiber and Keilhauer, put their full names individually into the in-house search box located at the top of our home-page.

Alternatively, it could be a Far East maker. There are so many copies of older collectible figurines that I would start from the position of assuming that it is not old.

This way you are not disappointed but could be pleasantly surprised if your collectible figurine is indeed original. To be honest, it looks in too good a condition to be so old.

From what I can see, it looks perfect. I would have expected something to have shown the age. Eighteenth century porcelain was at the the very start of European manufacture.

Although really charming, you can often see little faults in the glaze and body of the piece. The nineteenth century saw huge strides in the quality of manufacture and in the amount of pieces produced.

The Twentieth century was when lots of companies looked back to the 'golden age' of styles and carried on with the tradition. All this makes it very hard to date, even from a good photograph.

It might be worth visiting a museum or auction house to show it to their ceramics expert.

(One tip here when buying antiques and collectible figurines:- Always get the seller to write down what it is, how much you are paying for it - and give it a date. This will put them on the spot to make true statements. You can use this for your insurance.)

Best regards

Tonyy/admin