Ballerina with 'N' and 5- point Crown above

by zach
(Decatur, Alabama)

Ballerina with 'N' and 5- point Crown above:- I just picked this ballerina out at a garage sale in N Alabama. it has an N with a 5-point crown above it. I thought this would be easy to evaluate until I saw just how many different logos use N's with crowns over them.

Zach

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The forum Help Elf says:-

With such a generally used mark, you have to look at the small clues. This type of crown is known as a coronet - note the many different types of crowns used above the N letter on all the various marks. Some are obviously Germanic in origin, some are Italian. This one is Italian - first designed and used By Doccia Ginori in 1835. Somehow they lost the trademark rights to this is anyone seems to use it nowadays.

This coronet is a copy of the Ginori coronet (the simple 5 point prongs). Ginori were established in the 18th Century contemporary with the royal Capodimonte factory. Legend has it that when the royal factory closed, Ginori got hold of the moulds and started to cast and decorate Capodimonte reproductions with the N coronet mark on it.

So began the age old tradition of using the crowned N mark willy-nilly by any old person.

The original factory could not object or use litigation because they simply did not exist any more, and seemingly nobody owned the rights. A right royal Italian mess, you might say.

Getting back to your dancer figure, you then have to look at the mark which is Italian in appearance. Then you look at the figure which is not Italian in styling at all. Then you ask yourself, does this look like a German figure? The answer to that is no - not anything older than mid to late 20th century (from the GDR, made in a hurry). Design, decoration and sculpting values modest at best.

So in my view, this piece is either Far East volume ware (made for export)or Soviet block GDR produce.

For general free advice on how to research your collection, Peter wrote this page:

value of antiques.

H.E.