Estate Sale Sculpture
Graceful Ballet by Joan Coderch
Trying to fill my days to trout season took a strange turn. I went to an estate sale last Thursday and saw the above porcelain sculpture. It had a 250 dollar sticker on it and I kept going back to look. I knew nothing about porcelain figures but it was so beautiful I was tempted. What stopped me was thinking maybe these are sold at Pier One and pretty common. What did I know? I finally tore myself away and left.
The next day I woke up and decided to go back. I stopped at the credit union and picked up a couple hundred in cash. It was still there and as luck would have it all items over 100 dollars were 25% off. Still, I knew nothing about it. I carefully lifted it up and saw a maker mark on the bottom, Lladro, Made in Spain, so I googled Lladro ballerina with my cell phone and found one for sale in a specialty shop in Florida for 1800 dollars. My instincts were good! The estate sale folks had the original box which was custom designed to protect it for shipping so the trip home was stress free.
Since buying it I have been looking up Lladro figurines online. This one is pretty special. It is a retired model “Graceful Ballet” with a gloss finish, 17 inches tall, by the artist Joan Coderch. The photo hardly does it justice. Now I am thinking I need to find an equally impressive Lladro because I have two daughters. I found a couple online that might compare but they cost thousands of dollars. My girls may have to draw straws.
Fichigan 