Effortless Ways To Identify An Authentic Russian Nesting Dolls

It is her home as Russian souvenir foreign tourists. Children enjoy playing with the doll, it is used to decorate interiors.

The Origins and Roots

Few people know that the Russian nesting dolls have not Russian roots at all. There are quite a few myths about its origin, but most researchers believe that the Japanese deity became the prototype of the nested doll, whose figure also moved apart and contained smaller pieces. This Japanese figure was a bald old man.

Turner Zvezdochkin became the author of our nested doll, and the artist Malyutin painted the peasant girl. Why was it called the nesting dolls?

It is believed that this name comes from the Russian name Matryona. In turn, this name has its roots. It came from the Latin Matrona, which means “noble woman”. Good name, because really the doll has become a truly “notable”. Now that if you are interested to buy a nesting doll, then you will have to make sure how to tell if russian nesting doll is real. Let us dig that matter.

The Right Deals with the Nesting Dolls

Very rapidly, the nesting dolls symbolized Russian folk art, mainly because you can find many russian stacking dolls for sale there and even online. These symbols instantly spread throughout Russia; in each region it was “dressed” according to local traditions. Often, together with the outfit of the doll, its shape also changed – it was rounded, and then lengthened. Where folk crafts were developed, they were surely dolls.

It’s even hard to imagine that 200 years ago nobody knew about the nesting dolls. The most popular time for dolls became the 60s of the last century, when foreign guests began to come to the USSR to study and participate in various festivals. Each of them wanted to buy a folding doll for memory. Actually, today every foreigner also wants to buy a nested doll in memory of his stay in Russia. Why is she, and not all kinds of boxes, scarves or something else?

  • Probably, because the nesting dolls truly personifies the whole Russian people with its broad soul, bright colors, and friendly families.
  • Nesting doll is a symbol of life. A woman gives life to a daughter, which in turn will give life to the next being and so on.

Nesting dolls symbolizes wealth, fertility, motherhood. That is why it is so loved by the people. Today, you can buy a souvenir nesting dolls of various types – both in the form of fairy-tale heroes and even in the form of figures of famous politicians. Of course, such nesting dolls are made specifically for foreigners. But the most interesting thing is that they are just striving to acquire a traditional Russian doll, the nesting dolls, and not creative remakes.

The famous Russian nesting doll, known far beyond the borders of Russia, has almost a century of history. During this relatively small historical period, it has become one of the most comprehensive images of Russia, a symbol of Russian folk art.

The Reputation

Although the nesting dolls have long earned a reputation as a symbol of Russia, it is interesting that its roots are not Russian at all.

According to the most common version, the history of the Russian nesting doll originates in Japan. How did this happen? Japan is the land of many gods. Each of them answered for something: either for the harvest, or he helped the righteous, or was the patron of the happiness of art. Whole sets of god figures were popular in Japan. And at the end of the XIX century, someone decided to put several figures in one another. The first such fun was the figure of the Buddhist sage Fukuruma, a good-natured bald old man who was responsible for happiness, prosperity and wisdom. The Japanese, by the way, claim that the Russian monk was the first to carve a similar toy on the island of Honshu

They are even used for political purposes, see this article.

The Japanese Ones

The Japanese figure made its journey to Russia and was met with interest by the turner Vasily Zvezdochkin. It was he who carved similar figures from the tree, which were also invested in one another. The famous artist Sergey Malyutin painted the figure in the Russian manner – it was a round-faced ruddy girl in a flowered shawl, a sundress, with a black cock in her hand. The idea of ??creating a detachable wooden doll was suggested by S.V. Malyutin Japanese toy, brought from the island of Honshu, the wife of S. I. Mamontov.

The toy consisted of eight figures. The girls alternated with the boys, and the family was crowned with a rasped baby. It should be noted that the ability to paint turned products in Russia existed long before the dolls – in the tradition of turning and painting wooden eggs for Easter. So the Japanese figures got on the prepared Russian soil.

  • The most common name in Russia was Matryona, if affectionately, then nesting dolls. So they called the wooden lady. Over time, the name nesting dolls became a household name.
  • The first Russian nesting dolls were created in Sergiev Posad as fun for children who helped to assimilate the concepts of form, color, quantity and size. Such toys were quite expensive. But the demand for baby nesting dolls appeared immediately. A few years after the appearance of the first nesting dolls, almost the entire Sergiev Posad made these charming dolls. The original plot of the children’s nesting dolls is Russian girls and women, ruddy and full, dressed in sundresses and scarves, with dogs, cats, baskets, with flowers.

As a rule, such tree species as linden and birch serve as material for the nesting dolls. nesting dolls difficult to do. First, it is necessary to carve out the wood from the tree, and so that neither the knot nor the crack will be. And the master begins work with the smallest Russian dolls, only then their size becomes more and more. The artist will paint the nesting dolls with bright cheerful colors, as if wearing them in elegant clothes. Russian nesting dolls became so famous special that orders began to come even from abroad. At the beginning of the twentieth century a real matreshkhechny boom began. In addition to the traditional girl in the sundress, there were images of shepherds with a pipe, bearded men, brides and grooms. Later, themed dolls appeared as souvenirs, depicting, for example, the characters of literary heroes.