Vintage Lladro Waiting in the Park Figurine 1374 – Elegant Lady, Picture Hat & Parasol, Bench Seat, Handmade Porcelain Spain, 1980s

A young woman in a wide flowered hat sits on a white bench, a closed parasol resting against her skirt, waiting. This is Lladró #1374, "Waiting in the Park" — sculpted by Francisco Catalá, made from 1978 until it was retired in 1993. At nearly eleven inches it is a large piece; most Lladró girls stand six or seven.

The whole thing is an Edwardian daydream. The picture hat, the parasol, the park bench — these belong to the belle époque, when a parasol was as much a statement as a sunshade: pale skin meant a life spent out of the fields, and the parasol was that leisure worn in the hand. Lladró built its name on scenes like this, unhurried and genteel.

The making is worth knowing. The soft pinks and blue-greys are fused into the glaze in one high-temperature firing, which is why they melt together with no hard edge. The cluster of flowers on the hat brim was built petal by petal by hand — Lladró's signature and the most fragile thing here. The bench itself is pierced porcelain, its back cut into hearts and scrolls, a difficult thing to fire whole. And under the long skirt, as always, a small pointed slipper shows.

The base carries the blue bellflower mark and Lladró · Hand Made in Spain, with the impressed model number — the printed mark used from the late 1970s, placing this example in the 1980s.

On a piece like this, condition is most of the value. The parasol with its fine tip, the hat flowers, the pierced bench back and the fingertips are the parts that go first; please study the close-up photos of each. On this example they are intact, with no chips, cracks, or repairs found — but a buyer at this level should look for themselves.