Doll-A-Day 2023 #342: Princess of Imperial Russia Barbie

   Today's doll is one that's a little worse for the wear from the fire. She's Russia Barbie.

  There has been more than one Russia Barbie. This particular one is from the Pink Label Collection and was part pf the 25th anniversary of the Dolls of the World series in 2004.

  She has a very fair skin tone, and the Mackie Face.

 

That's some heavy duty crown! Her hair is a long braid.

 

See? Huge crown, very long braid.

No rooted eyelashes, but I think she's very pretty.

  Her boots look to have been made from the same mold as the Barbie boots from the late 60's and early 70's.

  I know this has been a quick one, but Tammy World and my Christmas projects have taken up all the time. I think the multi-post catch up will have to be three posts a day after Christmas, instead of two a day from here until the end of the year! See you tomorrow.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #238: Russian Doll

   Today's doll is a beautiful one. She's an Anna Kornikova doll. I couldn't find anything about a doll maker by this name when I Googled it, but I did find some stuff you might not want to find. The dealer had it written on her tag though, and said that's who the doll maker was.

She is a tall girl, about 20 inches tall at least.

  According to the dealer, this dollmaker is from Russia, and makes all the stuff on her dolls, from the clothes to the shoes. The doll herself is vinyl,  I think, with painted eyes and freckles.

She has a very pretty face, with a delicate look about her.

She even has earrings.

Her dress and blouse are separate pieces.

Tiny little buttons.

  I think he hair is mohair.

She's posable, but can't stand on her own.

 

Her long hair is braided.

Her woven shoes were made by the dollmaker too. Her legs aren't covered in stockings, but, instead, by wrappings.

If anybody is interested in this doll, she's available from Lizsdollhouse at www.lizsdollhouse.com

  That's today's doll. See you tomorrow. Don't forget to check out the Doll Book of the Month post today too.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #166 Russian Girls

   Today's dolls are two little Russian girls.

They're only about 6 inches tall. Of course, that would be hard to tell if you actually expected them to stand up, because they are extremely floppy.

 

  They have very lightly stuffed cloth bodies, with plastic heads, hands. and partial legs

  They both have tags that say CCCP, which is the Soviet Union. I'm going to copy and paste this explanation from the internet, because I don't have the appropriate letters on my keyboard!

"СССР (Союз Советских Социалистических Республик, SSSR (Sojuz Sovetskih Socialisticheskih Respublik) in Latin script) is a Russian abbreviation for the Soviet Union or Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)."

'88' what? The equivalent of our cents?

  Russian dolls from this era are usually cheaply made, but very cute, with glowy complexions to their plastic faces. One of these girls has a faded hand and a normal one.

  And how do I know they are girls? They look pretty non-specific, don't they? Well, yes, except for their shoes. They have little slippers with ties that are molded and painted up their legs. I was surprised to find that the shoes actually come off.

The shoes even have a molded in pattern.

  Both girls have rosy noses. It's cold in Russia!

  They're such cute little girls, and they fit in the palm of my hand.

  They look a bit like clowns, with those rosy noses and polka dot shirts.

  I'm guessing these were made around the 1970's.

  They're so cute! How can you not love them?!

   Those are the dolls for today. Tomorrow come back for more.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #93: Big Russian Girl

   The other day we saw a doll I got at my ex-favourite Goodwill. Today we're looking at one I didn't buy. Not because I didn't like her, but because she was more than I wanted to spend, and also, because she was big, and I can't get any more big dolls right now. Here she is.

Pretty, isn't she? Look at her face. It's very colourful.

  From the look of the plastic she's made of, and those big plastic eyelashes, I would say she's a Russian doll. I have a few Russian dolls, and they are made of this somewhat cheap looking plastic, and have the huge plastic eyelashes. (You can see two of them, HERE and HERE.) They also have very glowy complexions, and cute faces, and that's what makes them so appealing. 

  From additional research I would say this doll may be a doll made at the Leningrushka factory in Leningrad, possibly in the 1970's. She looks very much like she could be related to this doll, made in Leningrushka in the 70's. If you want to read about the history of the factory, and see more of their dolls, there is a good page for that HERE.

  I looked for some markings on her, and all I could find was a strange thing on the bottom of her shoe.

I can't tell what it is.

This girl has very blushy cheeks and sleep eyes.

  She was about 20 inches tall.

She had a nice outfit with orange shoes. You can see them a little better here. Ken was taking the pictures for me and not being very patient about it!

She was wearing thigh high stockings and undies.

Her shirt was a separate piece from her skirt. She also had a cool hat.

  While I was looking for markings on her I noticed that her clothes are sewn to each other, (The vest was sewn to the shirt, etc.), making it impossible to look at her back for marks. I couldn't see any marks, but I did find that she has a 'mama box' or 'crier' in her back!

This was as high as I could raise her shirt because of her clothing being sewn together.

   That's weird. She's not meant to be a baby. But I couldn't find anything anywhere on her that would have activated any other talking mechanism. What if she speaks Russian?! That would be interesting. She doesn't make any sound at all though, even when turned upside down, and back, which is what usually activates a crier.

She was in such perfect condition. Besides her and the doll I showed you yesterday, there were several other souvenir dolls, and dolls representing countries. Somebody must have collected them, and either died, or donated their collection.

  So, wish I could have gotten her, but the pictures will have to do. **************Okay. Confession. I wrote this that night, and Saturday I went back and I bought her. Only now she only has one shoe! There was a guy working in the aisle, stocking, and I said that the doll had both shoes a few days ago, and now she only has one. Had he happened to see it anywhere? He said, "I probably threw it away. If something's in the floor, I guarantee you it got thrown away." (Kind of like my mom always did!) I thought, "Well, then you're an idiot! Why wouldn't you try to find where it goes?! Take a glance around, at least." His advice was stupid too: Get some orange paint! Yeah. Okay. You're hilarious.

  See you tomorrow for another doll.

Doll-A- Day 2023 #42: Cossack

   Today's doll is a little guy I got at an antique store  a couple of years ago. I think he's a Cossack.

  A Cossack is described by Wikipedia as:

The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic Orthodox Christian people originating in the Pontic-Caspian steppe of Ukraine and Southern Russia. Historically, they were a semi-nomadic and semi-militarized people, who, while under the nominal suzerainty of various Eastern European states at the time, were allowed a great degree of self-governance in exchange for military service. Although numerous linguistic and religious groups came together to form the Cossacks, most of them coalesced and became East Slavic-speaking Orthodox Christians. The Cossacks were particularly noted for holding democratic traditions. The rulers of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russian Empire endowed Cossacks with certain special privileges in return for the military duty to serve in the irregular troops (mostly cavalry). 

The traditional Cossack is pictured this way:

  Note the long coat, fur hat, boots, and long gun on his back. The long coats cover them, but the uncovered boots might indicate to you that the Cossack is wearing knee length trousers. So is our man.

This little guy is about 6 inches tall.

Sorry about his face being covered with his fur hat. No matter what I do, the fur still goes over his face. I had to take the following picture while blowing the hair off his face,

  The fur hat is part of the whole traditional Cossack outfit, although it isn't always the same kind of fur. From the pictures I have seen, a lot of the time it was lamb's wool. (And we all know how awful the harvesting of karakul lamb's wool is from my recent post on Betsy Wetsy, don't we boys and girls? If you Google how it's harvested, I promise you will be horrified.) This guy's hat appears to be rabbit hair. That also creeps me out, but this rabbit has been dead for decades, as this guy looks very old to me. You'll notice his stockingette face has some damage.

  His coat is satin, with embroidered trim and bell type sleeves.

his hand is damaged too.

He's wearing a gymnastyorka, or, the English translation, gymnasterka, which is a military pullover tunic with a standing collar, and button closure. The buttons could be up the middle or at the side of the shirt front.

  And I've already mentioned boots, so lets look at his.

They have cardboard soles.

Sorry about the focus. 

He's carrying what could be a gun or a staff...or a spear?

It has a leather strap so he can carry it on his shoulder. There's nothing but a stick to the thing he's carrying though.

Let's look at the earlier picture again though. It looks like there may have been something attached to the upper portion, plus there may have been more to the end, but it broke off.

  Anyway, I thought he was cute, and I like his clothes. He was a good price, so I bought him. I wish he had less damage, but he deserves to be saved.

  That's today's doll. Tomorrow we'll celebrate Black History Month with a doll I can't afford!