Nora Curl

Mearto specialist

This is a pair of bisque porcelain figurines with added color to the surface. Bisque is fired, unglazed porcelain which gives the surface a dry texture that is water permeable. These figurals are intended to be decorative match holders and the surface of the baskets can be used for striking the match, The vast majority of bisque porcelain figures were produced in the 19th century and many of them came out of France and Germany during that time. The blue line with slashes is similar to German 18th century marks, the red stamped numbers with letter, however would date these to the 20th century. In other words, these figures are made in a style from the 1800's, the blue slashed line is a faux 1700's German mark, and the red stamped letter/number mark is distinctly from the 1900's. The red marks are the 'pattern name' for these; those numbers cannot be used to trace back to a maker. Most red number/letter stamps on European or Continental style bisque figurines are indicative of having been made in Japan for export. A large number of antique style bisque figures were made and exported during the Japan Occupation from 1946 - 1952/3. Knowing when your grandfather received these as a prize will help narrow down the dates as well. The overall bisque figurine market is slumped and those objects from the 19th and 20th centuries unfortunately do not sell for as high as they did a few decades ago. At one point in the past, these were more valuable than their current fair market value. The estimate is for the pair together and is based on these being 20th century Japanese export bisque figures and utilizes actual recent past recorded auction sales of comparables.