Russian Nesting Dolls, 5 Traditional Matryoshka Romashka Style

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Matryoshka Dolls 

Russian Nesting Dolls, 5 Traditional Matryoshka Romashka Style | Babushka Wooden Collectible Dolls Gift Set, Blue with White Flower Design, Hand Made in Russia

• Traditional Russian nesting dolls are colorful decoration items, loved by kids and adults for the playfulness of opening and inserting one doll inside the next
• SIZE Largest doll is 7.1 inches (18 cm) tall and 3.15 inches (8 cm) wide, SET of 5 dolls
• STYLE Romashka style is named after the place where the flower painted in this Matryoshka grows
• HANDMADE these dolls are handcrafted and handpainted, which makes each item unique, you will appreciate small variations on each item

RUSSIAN NESTING DOLLS

Matryoshka dolls, also known as Russian nesting dolls, came to Russia from Japan at the end of the nineteenth century. It was a wooden doll depicting an older Buddhist wise man carrying a younger version of himself nested inside.

Russian nesting dolls are a set of several wooden dolls of decreasing sizes that one by one fit inside of each other. Each stacking doll splits in half at the mid section and opens to reveal another smaller doll nested within. The traditional Matryoshka doll is usually round in shape and decoratively painted to resemble a pretty young faced peasant woman dressed or bundled up in an extravagant sarafan costume, a loose fitting traditional Russian garment.

The name "matryoshka" literally means "little matron", it comes from the Latin word for mother. So the meaning of matryoshka can be translated as "little mother", based on the idea that the outer or largest doll holds her babies inside. In the west, Matryoshka dolls are often erroneously referred to as "babushka”, which means "grandmother" or "old woman".

The dolls design and style often follow a theme and are similar to each other, but are not identical. Matryoshka dolls from the same design may vary in color, carry something different in their hands, or follow the same pattern with smaller dolls having less details. The themes can be as simple as “sarafan” a doll with the traditional costume, or as complicated as telling a Russian fairy tale.

The first Russian nesting doll set was carved in 1890 at the Children's Education Workshop, whose purpose was to make and sell children's toys. The set consisted of 8 dolls, where the outermost was a mother in a traditional Russian dress holding a red-combed rooster. The inner dolls were her children, five girls and a boy, and the innermost a baby. The Children's Education Workshop was closed in the late 1890s, but the tradition of the matryoshka simply relocated to Semyonov.

Semyonov became the name of the classic Matryoshkas. It depicts a young woman generally painted in yellow, red and white, with a distinct bright bouquet of flowers which makes these stacking dolls easy to recognize.