pottery mark query - a pair of french style lady and gentleman bisque figurines double marked with 7 with slash (77)

by valentin
(jupiter,fl,usa)

pottery mark query - a pair of french style lady and gentleman bisque figurines double marked with 7 with slash (77):- 2 french in style porcelain bisque looks like hand painted in front ,not painted in back,both have the #3481 and only one has the double7 (77) with the slash on it.

these were my mother's i think she got them at an estate sale always like them.

they have jumped from sister, to brother and now to me does anyone have any information on what they are and about the marking and if possible what value other than sentimental?

valentin

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pottery mark query - a pair of french style lady and gentleman bisque figurines double marked with 7 with slash (77)

Peter (admin) says:-

Hi Valentin

Seen lots figures come through this site, both on this public forum and the expert appraisal referral service, but never seen such a curiosity as these two before.

Why so bemused?

Well, the style is superficially like a 19th century German style of figurines - ornate and unglazed (bisque) - mostly represented by a German company called Kalk.

Kalk and other German bisque stylists did not invent the medium, but were copying a style called Chantilly bisque figurines made so exquisitely by the studios in Chantilly in the early Sevres years. The Sevres makers were in turn, trying to emulate the quality and fineness of the originators Meissen of 18th century Germany.

French makers were selling this type of beautifully detailed bisque figurine well into the 20th century.

Sometimes French and German bisque styles are hard to tell apart.

Up until around the 1930's bisque figures tended to have the tell-tale signs of quality. Quality of sculpt, quality of pose, quality of fabric detail, quality of decoration. After the war, unfortunately, the era of high quality seemed to be at an end, mass production values began to take precedent and the skills of the previous generation were all but lost.

Your figures look to me either to come into the later era as they show many strange anomalies, or they are low cost (almost throw-away) decorative items of the late 19th Century.

First, they are not finished on the rear. Very uncharacteristic of 19th Century German figurines that I have ever seen from quality makers, but very characteristic of 19th century English Staffordshire flatbacks for example.

The modeling though is detailed at the front, and nothing at all like the Staffordshire flatback and is more in keeping with mid to late 20th century Italian capodimonte style, or even more so, Far East modelling of the mid to late 20th century trying to emulate capodimonte styling.

If you study 19th century modelling, they just didn't model in this, I don't think. Only items which would have been thought of as junk at the time.

The faces and hands are normally the final clue, but unfortunately are not clear enough in the photos for me to see. I looked up and found other exact examples from this maker and the faces are actually not bad, but still I feel, not 19th century, or even early 20th century.

The combination of the lack of finishing on the back and the style of modelling leads me to believe that whatever period they are from - and theare particularly hard to tell, these are made in somewhat of a hurry and on a pinched budget - which suggests the craving for export currency from a country much in need of it.

I wouldn't be surprised if these were much newer than you suspect and are therefore just of sentimental value. But I have been known to be wrong. Often these type of items, many of which originate from post-war Japan (of GDR), are incorrectly marked up as antique German or French when being sold at auction. Certain producers from Japan were able to get quite close the original European style, but to me, there are always subtle differences.

To help you formulate and research your own opinion more, please visit this page I wrote for visitors:-

value of antiques.

Peter (admin)