Hello barrysgirl,
I was lucky in my search for these figurines: someone on eBay spelled
the name as both "Zephir" and "Zaphir" in the same description. It
turns out that Zaphir is the correct name.
Here are the Zaphir figurines that are currently available, and those
that were recently available, on eBay. I found them using the
advanced search page for eBay (
http://pages.ebay.com/search/items/search_adv.html ). (Please note
that these results pages are time-sensitive, so you might want to
print them out now, if you need any information.) The Zaphir
figurines that were sold recently went for anywhere from $36 to
$61.09, though several are on offer for more than that.
Results of search in current items available to any country for:
zaphir
eBay
http://search-desc.ebay.com/search/search.dll?MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&ht=1&query2=zaphir&search_option=1&submit=+Search+&minPrice=&maxPrice=&category0=&srchdesc=y&exclude=&st=&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&maxRecordsPerPage=50&worldlocation=ebayctry&available_to=0&located_in=1&ebaycurr=&pt=0&siteid=0&query=zaphir&shortcut=&ebaytag1code_tmp=0&ebaytag1_tmp=ebayavail&ebaytag1code=0&ebaytag1=ebayavail&eb
ytag12=ebayreg&from=R14
Results of search in completed items available to any country for:
zaphir
eBay
http://search-completed.ebay.com/search/search.dll?GetResult&query=zaphir&srchdesc=y&from=R14&ebaytag1=ebayavail&ebaytag1code=0&siteid=0&ht=1&currdisp=2&combine=y&st=2&SortProperty=MetaEndSort
The seller named bubbadog55, who recently sold several Zaphir
figurines, stated:
"LLadro purchased a porcelain factory in Spain named Zaphir and worked
under that name for their "gift" line from 1969 to 1971. ... Lladro
stopped Zaphir when they started Nao."
"Lladro Zaphir Boy with Cat", auctioned by bubbadog55 (Dec. 25-30,
2002)
eBay
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=750276153
However, it is possible that none of the Zaphir figurines on offer are
actually from Lladró. The murky connection between Zaphir figurines
and Lladró was the subject of discussion on the World Collectors Net
message boards.
The poster Peggy states that late Zaphir is by Lladró, "though not
early Zaphir as this was ... an acquired company". However, she
notes that determining late Zaphir is difficult:
"To confuse matters, none of the Zaphir figurines appear to have had
anything at all in the mark identifying them as affiliated with
Lladró, so it can be hard to distinguish Lladró-era Zaphir from
pre-Lladró."
The poster Dulcinea adds:
"An interesting note on Zaphir: I have seen a couple of times on eBay
what appears to be an old Zaphir piece that depicts don Quijote
reclining in a chair. Sound familiar? I think that this piece actually
predates Zaphir's affiliation with Lladro. It would appear that when
Lladro acquired Zaphir, they liked this piece so much that they issued
it under their own mark (#1030, 1969), and used it as a Lladro image -
this is the piece shown on the old collector's society plaque. But I
have definitely seen it with a Zaphir mark as well."
"Re: Golden Memories", posted by Carol Jean Snow on January 07, 2003
World Collectors Net
http://www.worldcollectorsnet.com/lladro/discuss/512.html
In another discussion, the poster Peggy says:
"as nearly as I have been able to sort out, Zaphir was a company
acquired by the Lladró company at some point in the 1970s. Many of its
models were later recycled as NAOs, which is why one finds Zaphir
clones of some later NAO figurines. The problem in attribution here is
that not all Zaphir would have been produced under Lladró's ownership,
as earlier Zaphir was produced independently. There is little or no
information on Zaphir on the Internet, and it does not appear to have
had much of an export presence outside Spain. The ones we are seeing
on eBay now are the manifestation of a global economy that depends
more on tourists' suitcases than on any export program."
"Re: Products Described as Lladró that Aren't", posted by Peggy on
December 27, 2002
World Collectors Net
http://www.worldcollectorsnet.com/lladro/discuss/475.html
Here are two other references to the connection between Zaphir and
Lladro:
"Re: Please can someone tell if this is Lladro", posted by Martin on
November 19, 2002
World Collectors Net
http://www.worldcollectorsnet.com/lladro/discuss/403.html
"Lladro companies vs. non-Lladro companies", posted by Dulcinea on
September 13, 2002
World Collectors Net
http://www.worldcollectorsnet.com/lladro/discuss/307.html
One of the posters, Peggy Whiteneck, mentions her book Collecting
Lladró (Krause Publications, 2001). There is a possibility that her
book will have more information on Zaphir figurines. Here are links
to this and other books on Lladró.
Results of search in Books for: lladro
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books&field-keywords=lladro&search-type=ss&bq=1/103-8449212-2064638
I hope that this information is helpful.
- justaskscott
Search terms used on eBay:
zephir
zaphir
Search terms used on Google:
lladro zaphir
Search term used on Lladro Discussion Board at the World Collectors
Net ( http://www.worldcollectorsnet.com/lladro/lladrodiscuss.html ):
lladro |
