Brothers Juan, José, and Vincente Lladró were born into a humble farming family. With the irregular income from farming, the brothers worked at a tile factory nearby to earn some extra money. They then decided to make and sell functional porcelain vases at their local market. One brother sculpted the pieces, whilst the other two focused on decoration.
What began as a cottage industry part-time family business in 1953 quickly gained popularity and as demand grew, they started adding their own creative flair to more decorative and elaborate porcelain pieces. In 1955, they started creating porcelain figurines. Organically, word spread on the quality and finish that Lladró was able to achieve that other porcelain makers could not emulate.
Lladró introduced the revolutionary single-firing method which soon replaced the traditional triple-firing. Traditionally, each firing round comes with a different set of complications, resulting in a lot of wastage and limitations in production, as the pieces shrink with every firing process, and the uniformity in quality and production was impossible. With the new single-firing method, production was much more effective and Lladró was able to achieve a higher quality of decoration as the process was much more stable and predictable.
This pioneering method also helped to define another hallmark of the brand: the characteristic pastel tones of a large part of its work. The subtle palette of blues, pinks, greys and tans gained world-wide fame. Lladró first ventured overseas to the United States in 1965 and was an immediate success. In no time they outgrew their space in hometown Almacera to a warehouse in nearby Tavernes Blanques in 1969. Once they set base in the new warehouse, they hired other sculptors, chemists and painters to help with their work.
Today, the Lladró porcelain company employs over 2,000 workers in its original manufacture in Tavernes Blanques, Valencia, Spain and continue to push the boundaries of creating luxury modern porcelain. Lladró now creates lighting, homewares, sculptures and jewellery, among other product categories, reinforcing its position as a porcelain specialist. It is now available in more than 120 countries and counting.