Doll-A-Day 17: Hungarian Embroidered Cloth Doll

  This is the pretty cloth doll I got at the auction on Wednesday. Her origins have been solved, and can be found in the comments below. She's probably Hungarian. I think she may also represent a Kalocsa dancer.

   Kalocsa is a town in Hungary. The doll is costumed like a traditional dancer from the region, like the ones in the picture below.

She was in a box of cloth faced and felt faced travel, or souvenier dolls. I love travel dolls, and had bid on several boxes of them. For some reason,at this particular auction, other people decided they loved them too, which isn't always the case. So I didn't get the others I bid on because I just didn't want to spend that much money when there were other things coming up that I really wanted. But this box I was willing to go a little higher on because I had to have this cloth doll. Luckily,and amazingly, nobody bid against me and I got the box for $5! It may have been because a couple of the travel dolls weren't in the best condition. Whatever the reason, I'm so glad I got this lady. She's so pretty.

Lots of detail, including the tiny 'buttons' on her blouse,her little bead necklace, her individual fingers, and her embroidered hanky.

Such realistic expression on a cloth face.

 Her face is hand painted. She has such nice colouring, and I like her hair.

 It's red! (While I never liked my red hair, I love it on dolls.)
I love all the embroidery on her clothes.

She's jointed at the hips, so she can sit down. She has obviously been displayed that way, because her skirt tends to stand straight up behind her head!

 She also has on the coziest looking stockings.

Here is her tag. I can't read what it says. If anybody knows who made her or can at least read it, I'd love to hear from you.