Lladro was founded in 1953 when Juan, Jose, and Vicente, three brothers born of local farmers and endowed with great artistic talent, formed a small family company in the Valencian village of Spain. Since then, Lladro has undergone an amazing metamorphosis from an artisan workshop to a huge firm of international scope enjoying continual growth. The company management has remained in the hands of the Lladro family, the owners of the firm, since its inception.
By 1990, Lladro had begun to recognize that affluent African-American are a powerful consumer constituency, and the company responded by creating a number of African-American models. This collection was originally named the Black Heritage Collection. In late 1990, the company made the decision to rename the collection after some consumers felt the term "heritage" smacked too much of the history of slavery. Among the most popular Black Legacy figurines are Dr. Martin Luther King,Jr.(#7528); and two sequences of jazz musician figurines: Jazz Clarinet (#5928), Jazz Drums (#5929), and Jazz Duo (#5930) issued in 1992 and Jazz Horn (#5832), Jazz Sax (#5833), and Jazz Bass (#5834) issued the prior year. The collection has family groupings (e.g.:Family Roots - #5371) and figurines of African-American children.
