12/22/2023 0 Comments Otagiri japan red robin bird bell![]() Some pieces are made to look like they might have been made two centuries ago, with gold trim a lots of flowers, while others are cute and whimsical and look like they were plucked right out of the 1950’s. Some figurines are very realistic, others were more “cartoony” (big eyes – meant to be cute), and many are just downright silly anthropomorphic characters. It is important to note that like many of the pottery companies that imported from Japan during this time, that there is no such thing as the quintessential Lefton design. In the 1970’s Lefton started contracting with potteries companies from all around the world (primarily those based in China, Malaysia, England, and Italy) and this global diversification actually had little impact on the quality of Lefton pieces however, Along with these labels, many pieces also have numbers stamped on their bases such as “H320” or “97558.” From my collecting experience I have discovered that these numbers can help identify figurines that are a part of a set - in my case it was 3 panda bears. ![]() Due to the overlapping of when these markings and the different stickers that were used it can be hard to identify the time period of a Lefton piece simply by looking at the label. Lefton,” “G.Z.L.,” and sometimes just the letter "L". ![]() Off” added to the label and those made after 1960 had “Trade Mark.” Marks also include the words “Lefton,” “Lefton China,” “Geo. Pieces made after 1953 had the words “Reg. Vintage Lefton products have a wide variety of marks. Pieces made from 1945 through 1953 were stamped with the words “Made in Occupied Japan” on their base, and items made between 1946 to 1953 usually had a red sticker with either silver or gold trim that read “Lefton’s Exclusives Japan.” In Canada they were known as Enterprise Exclusive. ![]() Lefton imported porcelain decorative objects including figurines, head vases, wall pockets, and kitchen-ware items such as cookie jars and salt-and-pepper shakers. In 1945 George traveled to Japan to seal an importing agreement, and the first Lefton China product marked "Made in Occupied Japan" reached the United States in 1946. George was a Hungarian immigrant who arrived in Chicago in 1939 and although his background was in marketing and designing specialty clothing, he had a passion for collecting fine porcelain. Lefton was founded by George Zoltan Leftonin 1941. The following could be found on their paper labels: "A Napco Collection," "Napco Originals by Giftware," "National Potteries Co., Cleveland, OH, Made in Japan," and "Napcoware, Import Japan." The “Napcoware” figurines, which are seen as being lesser in quality by some collectors, but this is not a universal consensus. Napco used multiple manufacturer marks for their head-vases and figurines with some being transfer marks and others being paper labels. Napco has held the interest of collectors because the ceramic items are consistently well-designed. Much to the chagrin of the American based pottery companies that opened after WWII, Japanese ceramic imports peaked from 1956 to the early 1960’s and it is estimate that this is the time period that many of the figurines were produced. Napco was initially a producer of decorative floral containers, but they soon began importing items like glassware, pottery, and ceramic items from Japan. National Potteries corporation (also known as Napco) was started in 1938 in Bedford, OH.
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