MATRESHKA - handmade Russian nesting doll

First russian nesting doll was of 8 pieces nesting doll made by woodcarver Zvezdochkin and painted by artist Malutin in 1890. "Matryona" or fond Matryosha was popular women name in old Russia. It became worldwide known when it got gold medal on World Exhibition in Paris in 1900. There were many clever artists those times who originated a new style in applied art of nesting dolls designing. Thanks to V. Ivanov, I. Busigin, I. Prokhorov, M. Vrubel, N. Bulichev and many others, nesting dolls were so popular in the beginning of 20 century that some foreign entrepreneurs started to produce these dolls. At the same time there formed centers of nesting dolls in Russia. First of them was dolls making center Sergiev Posad. Later babooshka dolls were made in Polhovsky Maidan and in Semenov too. In Soviet Russia nesting dolls were mass-produced with standardized designs. But since Perestroyka of M. Gorbatchev individually designed nesting dolls have got the second wind. Until the late ninetieth of 20 century, nesting dolls were customary to paint only with the several variant of the designing manner and to use a simple set of depicting means; the whole of doll was then lacquered. Author nesting dolls, however, are made in many painting ways - for the front and for the back. Often the facial expression and position of the arms are tokens of the artist. By varying the color palette of the flowers and the miniatures of the front side, a single type of nesting dolls can be given many different expressions. Gold foil , aquarelle and manifold decorative furnishings add the nesting dolls peculiar visual effect.