AUTHENTIC COLLECTIBLE HAND PAINTED RUSSIAN NESTING DOLLS (5 TOTAL)

Description

AUTHENTIC COLLECTIBLE HAND PAINTED RUSSIAN NESTING DOLLS (5 TOTAL)
HAND PAINTED
HAND MADE
5 SEPERATE DOLLS THAT FIT INSIDE EACH OTHER
LARGEST DOLL IS 7 INCHES TALL AND 3 INCHES WIDE
Matryoshka dolls,
also known as
babushka dolls
,
stacking dolls
,
nesting dolls
,
Russian tea dolls
, or
Russian dolls
are a set of wooden
dolls
of decreasing size placed one inside another. The name
matryoshka
, literally "little matron", is a
diminutive
form of the Russian female first name "Matryona" (Матрёна) or "Matryosha".
A set of matryoshkas consists of a wooden figure, which separates at the middle, top from bottom, to reveal a smaller figure of the same sort inside, which has, in turn, another figure inside of it, and so on.
The first Russian nested doll set was made in 1890 by
wood turning craftsman
and
wood carver
Vasily Zvyozdochkin
from a design by
Sergey Malyutin
, who was a folk crafts painter at
Abramtsevo
. Traditionally the outer layer is a woman, dressed in a
sarafan
, a long and shapeless traditional Russian peasant
jumper dress
. The figures inside may be of any gender; the smallest, innermost doll is typically a baby turned from a single piece of wood. Much of the artistry is in the painting of each doll, which can be very elaborate. The dolls often follow a theme; the themes may vary, from
fairy tale
characters to
Soviet leaders
. In the west, matryoshka dolls are often referred to as babushka dolls,
babushka
meaning "grandmother" or "old woman".