inventions inventions inventions inventions
 
 

Matryoshka doll - Invented by Vasily Zvyozdochkin

 
Vasily Zvyozdochkin-Matryoshka doll
: Vasily Zvyozdochkin (Know about Vasily Zvyozdochkin)
: 1890
: Russia
: Toys

About Invention

A matryoshka doll, also known as Russian nesting doll refers to a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside the other. The name is believed to be a derivative of "Matriosha" or "Matriona," which were female names that enjoyed immense popularity among Russian peasants. The name connotes the matriarch of a big Russian family.

History

The first Russian nested doll set was carved in 1890 by Vasily Zvyozdochkin, designed by Sergey Malyutin, who was a folk crafts painter in the Abramtsevo estate of Savva Mamontov, a Russian industrialist and patron of arts.The doll set was painted by Malyutin. Malyutin's doll set consisted of eight dolls—the outermost was a girl in a traditional dress holding a rooster. The inner dolls were girls and a boy, and the innermost a baby.


Zvyozdochkin and Malyutin were inspired by a doll from Honshu, the main island of Japan. Sources differ in descriptions of the doll, describing it as either a round, hollow daruma doll or a fukuruma nesting doll, portraying a portly bald old Buddhist monk.


Savva Mamontov's wife presented the dolls at the Exposition Universelle (1900) in Paris, where the toy earned a bronze medal. Soon after, matryoshka dolls were being made in several places in Russia and shipped around the world.

 

Invention Images

matryoshkadoll2.png

Matryoshkadoll2.png

View Photos
matryoshkadoll3.png

Matryoshkadoll3.png

View Photos
 

Invention of Matryoshka doll Video


 
 
Top