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Moonlight in Platinum
Moonlight in Platinum was designed and sculpted for the Franklin Mint by Victoria (Vicky) Oldham. It became one of the best selling figurines for the Franklin Mint in their history. The ad below was originally circulated in popular consumer magazines like “Vogue,” and “Bazaar.”
Above: the ad that appeared in numerous consumer magazines through the late 1980s and 1990s. Moonlight In Platinum became one of the most successful figurines of all time for The Franklin Mint, with reportedly about $40 million in gross sales! When Victoria Oldham went to Thailand in 1995 to instruct a group of china painters on another figurine project, she met with one factory owner during her visit who claimed to have made eleven million dollars in profits in manufacturing sales of this figurine — at only one of his several factories. Sadly, figurine sculptors like the Oldhams were shamefully underpaid in those days, Victoria having received a mere $2500 for the design sold to the Franklin Mint in 1987—with no royalties. Of course, in hindsight, it was akin to highway robbery, but all the sculptors we knew were treated similarly. The Franklin Mint added more figurines to their new Art Deco-style line, but Victoria was not to be designer of the follow-ups; the Oldhams quit working with the Franklin Mint within 1-1/2 years of creating several highly successful work-for-hire designs, due to many issues related to mistreatment of the sculptors.
The original clay sculpture and refined plaster model for Moonlight in Platinum, created at the Oldham Studio in the mid-1980s.