HISTORY: Matryoshkas date from 1890. The story goes that Sergei Maliutin, a painter from a folk crafts workshop in the Abramtsevo estate of a famous Russian industrialist and patron of arts Savva Mamontov, saw a set of Japanese wooden dolls representing Shichi-fuku-jin, the Seven Gods of Fortune. Inspired, Maliutin drew a sketch of a Russian version of the toy. It was carved by Vasiliy Zvezdochkin in a toy workshop in Sergiyev Posad and painted by Sergei Maliutin. It consisted of eight dolls; the outermost was a girl in an apron, then the dolls alternated between boy and girl, with the innermost – a baby. In 1900, M.A. Mamontova, the wife of Savva Mamontov, presented the dolls at the World Exhibition in Paris and the toy earned a bronze medal. Soon, many other places in Russia started making matryoshki of various styles. Modern artists create many new styles of nesting dolls. Today, many talented Russian artists specialize in painting themed matryoshka dolls that feature specific categories of subjects, people or nature.
J**S
Item delivered as advertised and on time
Item: Looked as advertised when opened as a gift in my presence. A basic Matreshka - the painting is not very fancy, and some of the dolls are easier to open than others (but nne ridiculously difficult), but it looks authentic and - I believe - would work nicely in as part of a larger display. When buying, don't over-estimate its size based on the picture (read the descriptions): the largest doll is pretty small (3-4" tall, by my rough approximation), and won't fill up a lot of space on the shelf by itself.Delivery: I ordered with 1-2 weeks in advance (since the item was not delivered by Amazon Prime), and the item was delivered with ample time before Christmas. Packaged in appropriate padding to prevent damage.Note that item is pretty small, so if you didn't read the details, it desnt
C**Y
Russian nesting dolls
These dolls are great. They look, feel and smell authentic...not like Russian nesting dolls made in China. I bought them for my nieces to be given along with a book about Russian nesting dolls. Fair price, nice product.
V**E
Nesting Dolls
These dolls are very nice quality and very colorful. My kindergarten students enjoyed looking at them when we learned about Russia for a lesson in December. I will enjoy using them year after year.
E**O
Size
I was expecting it to be bigger but make sure you read carefully. The product is great it just I wish it was bigger.
H**R
Five Stars
beautiful !
M**E
The nesting dolls were slightly smaller than anticipated
They were slightly smaller than I anticipated. Our eight year old granddaughter requested them as her Christmas gift from us.
T**Y
Tiny
Smaller than what appears. Decent quality but would expect to be regular size. Should say miniature some where in the description
Trustpilot
3 weeks ago
2 weeks ago