Porcelain figurine ID? Gold painted mark maybe a crown or tooth?

by Marcia
(Colorado)

Hello, I am not a collector but I saw these two figures at a small estate and yard sale. They looked really out of place from the other items on the table so I picked them up. They are twelve inches tall, obviously hand painted and they must be a pair. The gold painted mark is also incised on the bottoms and one is marked with the number 2030 the other is 2031. I have looked on the internet but I can't really describe the mark. I can't tell if it is an initial, or a crown, or a combination crown over W.

Now the lady who owned this estate stuff was from Holland. She had an extensive collection of Delfts Blue and much of it was from the Netherlands other items were from China. These two pieces I'm asking about seemed European, not something from Holland or China. They also seem to be older. The female figure is perfect. The little "boy" figure has some tiny crazing indicative of age so I think they are vintage.

Any info you could provide as to the makers of the figures would certainly be appreciated.

Thank you very much,

Marcia

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Peter (admin) says:-

Hi Marcia

Sorry about the delay in posting this submission Marcia. Meantime you got tired of waiting and sent in for the expert service.

I hope you don't mind me revealing some of the details the expert gave us....

These look European because they are based on older European designs, but are in fact made in post-war Japan. The mark is just a faux mark meant to look vaguely European and not meant for identification.

Best regards

Peter (admin)

For general free advice on how to research your collection, I wrote these pages:

My vintage and antique china values page

value of antiques.