Hi, Troubador-- While I certainly hope that your heirloom is Meissen, it's been my experience with this sort of bisque that most people call it Meissen whether it is necessarily Meissen or not. The J I think you mention does indicate it's probably German. (I collect bisque pieces like these myself.) But I haven't had much luck in finding out any history on them in general. In a similar quest to yours, I'd written up what I DID know about my one one of my web pages, hoping to find some answers. If you have a spare moment, you can view my collection at the link below I wish you luck. I'm glad to hear you say you want to keep them, and not sell them. -Jenn Here is a link that might be useful: My Collection of German-Art Nouveau Bisque

Need to know more....size....what are they....dogs? Ladies in fancy dress....elves?... How big? Porcelain? colors? What color is the stamp on the bottom? Can you post pictures? Linda C

A photo of the sticker would probably be useful. They look like bisque, mass-produced, possibly for her to paint and glaze?

LOL, Linda....and thank you, Rosalynd....I realized after posting this pic that it's kind of hard to distinguish against the white Haviland. Here's a little better pic of it. The box itself is glazed but the figure is not, and it looks like bisque to me. I believe the box is porcelain because you can see though it when you hold it up to light. You're right about it being a matchbox....inside the lid, which is also unglazed, there are ridges all along the underside. There are no markings at all. When I say it's been in the family "forever" it means that it came from my father's side of the family, and they go back almost that long....lol. I'm almost 50, and my mom was born in 1911, my dad in 1917.....my dad's parents married later than was the norm back then, too. This family hardly ever got rid of anything, so I've ended up with a lot of stuff, not that that's a bad thing. I have many things that were my greatgrandparents', too, but I was curious about this little box. When you have a few minutes, take a stroll though the house, you'll see what I mean.... Here is a link that might be useful: Lori's pix