The Charm of Russian Nesting Dolls

 

QUESTION: My introduction to Russian nesting dolls occurred on a trip to Russia. Vendors selling wooden dolls in a variety of sizes and themes seemed to be everywhere. I purchased several sets of dolls and would perhaps like to collect them. When and where did they originate? Are they valuable? And are there different kinds?

ANSWER: Those are all good questions. First, the correct name for your Russian nesting dolls is Matryoshka dolls. And while they’re commonly associated with Russia, they didn’t originate there. 

A professional artist and folk crafts painter named Sergei Malyutin, who worked on the Abramtsevo estate of Savva I. Mamontovas, as a Russian industrialist, made the first sketches of a nesting doll based on a nesting toy featuring the Seven Gods of Fortune  his wife brought home from a visit to Honshu, Japan, in the latter part of the 19th century. However, the Japanese say that it was a Russian monk who first brought the idea of making nesting dolls to Japan.

 Zvyozdochkin carved the first Russian nested doll set in 1890 at the Children's Education Workshop, created to make and sell children’s toys. Mamontov's brother, Anatoly Ivanovich created the Children's Education Workshop to make and sell children's toys. Malyutin painted the doll set which consisted of eight dolls—the outermost of which was a mother dressed in a kerchief and work apron holding a red-combed rooster. The inner dolls were her children, girls and a boy, and the innermost a baby. Each carried items of Russian peasant life—a basket, a sickle, a bowl of porridge, a broom, and a younger sibling in tow. Nestled in the center was a baby swaddled in a patchwork quilt. The toy workshop named her Matryoshka, or “little mother.” When the Children's Education Workshop closed in the late 1890s, the tradition of the matryoshka dolls relocated to Sergiyev Posad, the Russian city known as a toy-making center since the 14th century.

 intended his doll to depict a round-faced peasant girl with beaming eyes. He dressed her in a sarafan—a floor-length traditional Russian peasant jumper dress held up by two straps—and gave her carefully styled slicked-down hair largely hidden under a colorful babushka or bandanna. He placed other figures, either male or female, each smaller then the one before, inside the largest doll, dressing them in kosovorotkas, or Russian blouses fastened on one side, shirts, poddyovkas, or men’s long-waisted coats, and aprons. He planned to have the smallest, innermost doll, traditionally a baby, turned from a single piece of wood.

Each wooden doll contained symbols of fertility. Doll makers considered the largest doll the matriarch of the family, while they referred to the smallest as the “seed,”’ representing the soul. They’re seen as a representation of a chain of mothers carrying on the family legacy through the child in their womb. Dolls soon became a major export as a Russian souvenir. Non-Russian buyers believed they were authentic handmade folk art.

Mamontov's wife presented the doll set at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900, where they won a bronze medal. Soon after, craftsmen in several other Russian towns began making them and shipping them around the world. 

So where did the name for these dolls originate? At the end of 19th century, Matrena was one of the popular female names in Russia. Derived from the Latin root matrena, it means, "mother," “respected lady," or "mother of the family." Placing one figure inside another was also a fitting symbol of fertility and perpetuation. People also referred to these dolls as "babushka dolls," "babushka" meaning "grandmother" or "elderly woman" and also the name of the bandana worn by peasant women at the time.

But matryoshka dolls required a lot of skill to produce. Those who did know how to fashion these dolls kept the process a secret.  

Artisans generally chose linden wood because of its softness, and less often alder or birch. It was important to cut the wood at the right time, when it was neither too dry nor too damp. Each piece went through as many as 15 separate processes. The craftsman created the smallest doll first.

Once he had made the smallest doll, he then moved on to the next figure into which that first doll would fit. He cut a piece of wood to the necessary height, then cut it in half to form a top and bottom section. He worked on the bottom section of the doll first, removing the wood from the inside of both sections of the second doll so that the smaller doll would fit snugly inside. A skilled craftsman didn’t bother to make measurements but relied solely on his experience. Afterwards, he repeated the process, making a slightly larger doll into which the previous ones would fit.

Some people believed that a craftsman carved all the dolls in a set from one piece of wood. Actually, he used a lathe equipped with a balance bar and four heavy two-foot-long distinct types of chisels—a hook, knife, pipe, and spoon—to carve the dolls from multiple pieces of wood, using a set of handmade wooden calipers especially crafted to the size of the doll by a woodcarver. A village blacksmith hand forged these tools from car axles or other salvage. 

The number of dolls held one inside the other varied from 2 to 60. There was no limit to the size of these dolls. When the craftsman finished each doll, he covered it with starchy glue that filled in any hollow areas in its surface. Then he polished the dolls to a smooth finish to enable the painter to spread the paint evenly. After fashioning and finishing the wooden dolls, the craftsman handed it on to a painter who then decorated them in a folksy style.

Much of the artistry was in the painting of each doll. Some were very elaborate. The dolls often followed a theme which could vary from fairy tale characters to Soviet leaders. Originally, doll makers used themes drawn from tradition or fairy tale characters, in keeping with the craft tradition. But since the 20th century, they have embraced a larger range, including flowers, churches, icons, folk tales, family themes, religious subjects, and even Soviet and American political leaders.

Makers of matryoshka dolls often designed them to follow a particular theme. For instance, peasant girls in traditional dress. Originally, they took themes from traditional folk art or fairy tale characters, in keeping with the craft tradition—but since the late 20th century, they have embraced a larger range, including Russian leaders.

Common themes of matryoshkas were floral and related to nature. Christmas, Easter, and others religious subjects were also popular themes. Eventually, the dolls became popular souvenirs for both Russian tourists and visitors from abroad. Artisans created many new styles of nesting dolls to fill this new market. These included animal collections, portraits, and caricatures of famous politicians, musicians, athletes, astronauts, "robots", and popular movie stars.

The craft of making Matryoshka dolls gradually spread from Moscow to other cities and towns, including Semenov, Polkhovskiy Maidan, Vyatka, and Tver. Each locality developed its own style and form of decoration. 

As with other crafts, the Russian Government under Communism strictly controlled doll making and selling. But political changes at the end of the 1980s gave artisans new possibilities and freedoms.

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Santa—All Dressed Up and Everywhere to Go

 

QUESTION: For most of my adult life, I’ve been discovering and purchasing unique Santa dolls with the image printed on fabric and stuffed. I know virtually nothing about these dolls. I started collecting them because I liked them—they were fun. What can you tell me about my dolls?

ANSWER: Most people are more familiar with a variety of Santa toys and decorations, including many made of plastic from the mid-20th century on. But the origins of these dolls go back a lot further.

The British call him Father Christmas. The French Pere Noel. The Germans Kris Kringle. The Dutch Sinterklaas. To Americans, he’s Santa Claus.

Pictures and drawings depicted him as a tall, stately, thin man wearing bishop’s robes, with a broad-rimmed hat, and big breeches. He smoked a long pipe and rode a white horse or rode in a wagon. 

The original 17th-century British Father Christmas, wore a dark beard, and his clothing  was green, not red. Early representations of Father Christmas saw him dressed in green, representing the green shoots of spring in the depths of winter. Scandinavian myths contributed to Santa’s reindeer-pulled sleigh.  His elves have a Germanic and distinctly devilish background.

Father Christmas’s first name, “Father,” originated in pre-Christian times. Historians believe it evolved from ‘Woden’, or the better known “Odin,” the chief god of North European and Scandinavian mythology. Americans prefer to refer to him as Santa Claus, and this name derives from the 3rd century saint, Nicholas. He was a charitable bishop from Myra in Turkey. He delivered his first gifts of bags of gold coins  anonymously to a man so that a he could afford to have his daughters married. Some accounts say he left a gold coin in each of the daughters’ stockings and in others that he dropped his gifts down the man’s chimney because the door was locked.

But the Santa known by American children appeared on December 24, 1822 in New York City. That was the day that Clement Moore penned the Night Before Christmas. 

His poem inspired artists to draw the character of Santa Claus based on Moore’s descriptions. His poem first appeared in book form in 1848, illustrated by T.C. Boyd. Over the years, many other artists have created their own interpretations of Santa Claus. The most famous are the ones done by Thomas Nast which appeared in Harper’s Weekly from 1863 to 1866.

As with many things designed for children, the idea of Santa Claus grew and grew. Soon American companies began producing Santa toys, including Santa Claus dolls. Edward Peck designed one of the oldest dolls, produced by the New York Stationary Envelope Company. Made from 1884 to 1886, this lithographed cloth doll may have been the first commercially made type of doll in the United States.

Peck’s Santa was a forerunner of the Santa later made by Celia and Charity Smith for the Arnold Print Works, one of the country’s largest producers of printed cloth dolls. 

Santa dolls have included both stuffed immovables and animated characters. Many of the stuffed Santas that exist today are the kind that mothers cut and stuffed at home. Because these dolls rarely had marks, it’s difficult to date them. The other thing to consider is that many of these cut and sew at home are replicas of toys from the past.

Antique cloth Santas are nearly impossible to find because they’ve already been purchased and are part of collections. But collectors are still interested in Santas of any material made from 1900 on. Cloth Santas of the 1940s and 1950s have grown in popularity with collectors, with the Coca-Cola Santas selling for the highest prices if they’re still holding their bottles of Coca-Cola. Next in line is the Pepsi Santa.

The Santas from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s are the least valuable. While prices vary, the differences are because Christmas and Santa collectors often pay more for a Santa than a doll collector.

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Doing the Monster Mash

 

QUESTION: I guess you can say I’m a Halloweenie. I love Halloween. Every year I begin decorating in September. Over the years I’ve amassed a collection of monsters—toys, masks, costumes, etc. Collecting them has been fun, but I really don’t know much about their origins. What can you tell me?

ANSWER:  Along with the usual array of ghosts and witches parading the streets on Halloween, look closely and you're bound to see versions of monsters from yesteryear—Frankenstein, The Wolfman, and Dracula. All are as much a part of Halloween as pumpkins glowing on front porches. Even though these films date from decades ago, the classic Universal Studios monsters are still among the most recognized images to come from the silver screen. While Universal designed those early film monsters to simply scare moviegoers, the creatures moved into the toy and collectibles world during the 1960s. Today, the demand for classic monster collectibles has generated a thriving market with prices that might frighten some beginning collectors as much as the monsters would have scared their grandparents.

It was in 1931 when all horror hell broke loose for Universal. One historic release was James Whale's frightening screen version of "Frankenstein," portrayed by the then struggling actor Boris Karloff, the haunting, supernatural appearance of the Monster terrified unsuspecting audiences. Sewn together from the bodies of harvested corpses with electrodes protruding from his neck, the Monster looked like a hideous creation reanimated from the dead. Released in the same year was Todd Browning's chilling adaptation of Brain Stoker's Dracula. Originally intended for Lon Chaney Sr., the role eventually went to Hungarian-born actor Bela Lugosi after Chaney's death in 1930.

Frankenstein was such a screen success that it spawned a long line of wonderfully frightening sequels, featuring some of his relatives, starting with The Bride of Frankenstein. Others that followed in the 1930s and 1940s included Son of Frankenstein, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, and House of Frankenstein.

“The Creature from the Black Lagoon," Universal’s last monster, came along in 1959. Among collectors, he’s the most popular. But as the 1950s waned, so did interest in the monsters. With increased competition from home and abroad, Universal just couldn’t keep up.

The Beginning of Monster Merchandise
The Aurora Plastic Corp. was one of the first companies to produce a line of classic monster merchandise—a model kit of Frankenstein. The model was so successful that Aurora released 12 more monster kits in the 1960s including all of the Universal mainstays. After Aurora's efforts proved successful, numerous other companies climbed aboard the Monster Express with their own offerings.

Among the most impressive and collectible are their battery-ops. Specifically, the battery-operated Frankenstein, which if in excellent condition, is one of the most sought out of all monster collectibles:

To meet the demand for monster inspired merchandise, a multitude of companies began to produce a variety of products.

Though interest in monster collectibles continued its downward spiral during the 1970s and 1980s, monster collectible sales continued to be brisk. The 1970s gave way to the action figure, which dominated the toy scene and monsters became a big part of that sensation.

Among the most collectible monster figures from that time are the 8-inch AHI figures produced from 1973-1976. Of particular note are those monsters that sport actual cloth clothing: Mego also introduced its own line, Mego Mad Monsters, comprised of 8-inch figures available in individual boxes as well as on cards. In 1974 and 1975, Lincoln International created a line of 8-inch articulated figures, particularly noteworthy for their cartoonish look. In the 1980s Remco manufactured a set of 9-inch figures that have proven very desirable among collectors. Also popular was their release of 3 3/4-inch Mini Monsters on cards that featured pictures of the monster as he appeared in the original film. Remco also offered a Mini Monster carrying case with this line. In 1986 Imperial added its own 7½-inch rubber figures packaged in bubble packs.

Not surprisingly an early 1960s survey of young people by the Aurora Plastics Company showed the interest in monster mania generated by old films, which had begun to be shown on TV. Aurora took a big chance in releasing its monster models. It began by only releasing its Frankenstein kit to test the public’s acceptance.

By late 1961 Aurora's boxed Frankenstein assembly kits were in stores and instantly sold out. A second mold was quickly made to keep up with the demand, according to Breugman, and soon the plant was in production 24 hours a day.

World famous toy maker Marx noticed the excitement and added their own Frankenstein toys in 1963, including a plastic monster figure. Another Marx offering was a large remote control model of the monster, and still another was a wind-up Mechanical Frankstein with plastic head and metal legs.

Other related toys from that era included the Frankenstein wind-up with a plastic monster figure in a four-and-a-half-inch-tall antique car, and a boxed battery operated litho tin Frankenstein Monster. Both came from Japan.

During the 1970s, Aurora continued their early kit success by including Frankenstein in their Monsters of the Movies series. However, there was more interest in already constructed five to eight inch plastic monster figures, and soon other makers flooded the market. Mego sold a Mad Monster series starting in 1974 which included Dreadful Dracula, Human Wolfman, Horrible Mummy, the Mad Monster Castle, and Monster Frankenstein. Others with similar figures on the market included Ace Novelty, Lincoln International, Kenner, Remco Industries and eventually Imperial.

One of the last of the battery-operated Frankenstein figures came in the 1970s from Poynter Products. The 12-inch monster was almost entirely made of plastic.

The latter part of the 1990s witnessed the release of a hord of monster action figures. In 1993 Telco released a set of Universal Monster motionettes that included The Wolf Man, Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein and The Mummy. The Mummy from this set is very collectible . and will most often sell for more than $100 There was somewhat of a lull in new classic monster merchandise until 1997. In that year, the U. S. Post Office released a set of monster stamps as portrayed by the original Universal actors.

Also in that same year, Hasbro manufactured a set of impressive 12-inch figures in individual boxes. The firm based the bodies on earlier G.I. Joe figures. However, it gave more attention to the details with these figures and the faces bore a greater resemblance to the film monster than had been seen in some time. To add to the resurgence in monster popularity was a set of plastic 4-inch toys figures sold only as a promotional item at Burger King. Once again, toy departments displayed monster toys.

Of all the action figures produced, the ones released by Sideshow Toys in the late 1990s were the most realistic. Licensed by Universal and in agreement with the estates of Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney Jr., the 8-inch figures in the first series consisted of Frankenstein; The Mummy, and the Wolf Man. The success of the first series and the demand generated by collectors has spawned new Sideshow offerings. Series 4 figures include Son of Frankenstein The Mole Man and The Werewolf of London. The only figure missing was of Dracula, which Sideshow was finally able to produce after reaching an agreement with the estate of Bela Lugosi.

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The Wonderful World of Oz

 

QUESTION: Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve enjoyed the story of the Wizard of Oz I looked forward every Spring to the televising of the award winning 1939 film. As an adult, I ran across a copy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz at a book sale. I had no idea that the author, L. Frank Baum, wrote so many books about the Land of Oz. So I began to collect Wizard of Oz memorabilia, including copies of Baum’s books. Can you tell me where Baum got his idea for the Wizard of Oz? And how collectible is Oz memorabilia?

ANSWER: Most people associate the Wizard of Oz with the 1939 movie of the same name. But the character goes back even further in the works of L. Frank Baum. 

Children looked forward to birthdays and Christmases when they could unwrap their favorite gift—a L. Frank Baum book recounting magical places, especially the Land of Oz. Children couldn’t get enough of them. 

Lyman Frank Baum was born on May 15, 1856, in Chittenango, New York. A prolific writer who wrote under six different pen names as well as his own, his first published book was a guide to raising fancy Hamburg chickens. When Baum wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1898, no publisher would accept it. He insisted on color illustrations and publishers didn’t want to take a chance on the expense of that. In 1900, Baum finally paid the firm of George M. Hill in Chicago to publish it.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz filled the fairytale niche in American children's literature. Baum worked with the book's illustrator, W.W. Denslow, composer Paul Tietjens and Julian Mitchell to create a traveling musical stage play based on the book. Debuting in 1902, it brought its two leading men instant stardom. People flocked to see Fred Stone as the Scarecrow and David Montgomery as the Tin Man, in this production that featured chorus girls and songs about football. Imogene the Cow replaced Dorothy’s dog Toto.

After The Wonderful Wizard of Oz succeeded, children begged for more Oz books. Baum wrote at least one Oz book a year from 1904 on, at the same time completing other juvenile series. In 1910, he tried to end the Oz series with its sixth book, The Emerald City of Oz, by ceasing communication between Oz and the 20th-century world. Fortunately, the silence didn’t last. Baum published a new Oz book in 1913 and every year after until his final book appeared posthumously in 1920.

Despite success during his lifetime, Baum was unable to keep money in his pocket. He made a few bad business choices, including backing several Broadway flops, running a failed newspaper, and going bankrupt while working as a shopkeeper at his own Baum Bazaar in Aberdeen, South Dakota. He understood people having a hard time and gave everyone credit.

Following Baum's death in 1919, his publisher commissioned Ruth Plumly Thompson to continue the story of Oz from 1921 to 1939. The illustrator for the series, John R. Neill, wrote three Oz books, and more appeared off and on until the 40th book in 1963. 

The 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz, was a huge success and generated enough collectibles from 1939 to the present to keep the most ardent Oz collectors happy. The variety of Oz collectibles included such items as a metal lunch box with original Munchkin signatures, sets of playing cards, Tarot cards, movie posters, cookie cutters, bookmarks, character glasses, coffee mugs, refrigerator magnets, Oz T-shirts, dolls, nesting figurines, books, buttons, paper ephemera, records, games, Japanese Hallmark Christmas ornaments, collector plates, jewelry, and handmade tiles. 

There’s even edible Oz----a can of funnel cake mix bearing the Tin Man's face and a bag of rainbow-colored marshmallows.

Wizard of Oz so ingrained itself in popular culture, memorabilia can be found everywhere, almost every day. It appears in live and online auctions, on eBay, in antique shops and flea markets, or in one of several Oz-themed shops. 

Some Oz collectors with unlimited budgets vie to own a piece of the historic movie. The dress worn by Judy Garland in the 1939 film, auctioned at Bonhams in London in 2005,  sold for the equivalent of $267,000 to a British collector. 

In August 2005, a thief stole one of four pairs of ruby slippers used in the 1939 film from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. The slippers, on loan from a private collection in California, had an insured value of $1 million. 

One of the hottest collectibles is a little jewel box given out at the 100th showing of the movie that features a picture of the Cowardly Lion.

Learn more about the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz by reading "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" in #TheAntiquesAlmanac.

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Sleep My Baby

QUESTION: Recently, I purchased an old book on Victorian life at a book sale. As I was leafing through it, I noticed a photo of a bizarre looking little doll. The caption said it was a mourning doll. I never saw anything like this before. What can you tell me about this little doll and what was its purpose?

ANSWER:  During the Victorian Era,  people typically used elaborate physical representations and rituals to mark the death of a loved one. Because people often died at home, family members, usually women, prepared the body of the deceased for buria. The dead body would then be displayed for a time in the parlor. Because of the close proximity of death to the home, and because of high mortality rates for children and infants, children knew about death and dead bodies from a very early age.

In Victorian times, parents and other family members openly discussed death with children. And children's stories often included death scenes and references to death, especially with an emphasis on the joys of heaven and the inevitable reunion with loved ones there.

During the 19th century, especially after the Civil War, death played a major role in everyday life.

By the late 19th century, it became customary to commission a "mourning doll" to lay at the grave of a deceased child. These dolls became a way for families to deal with the death of a child. Along with mourning attire and jewelry, death masks, and post-mortem photography, the mourning doll was just another, if somewhat overlooked, element in the Victorian grieving process.

Considering that many infants died of disfiguring and draining illnesses such as smallpox, scarlet fever, tuberculosis and diphtheria, the mourning doll offered an idealized reality of their loss. While their child may have departed gaunt and bloody, the wax effigy would look as though it had simply closed its eyes and gone to sleep.

Graveside dolls became a way for parents to cope with the death of a child. When a child died, it was traditional for families who could afford it to have a life-sized wax effigy of the child made for the funeral. The doll would often be dressed in the deceased infant or child's own clothing, and most of the deceased child's own hair would be used to make the doll even more realistic. These wax dolls usually show the deceased lying in a coffin-like setting with their eyes closed, to mimic a peaceful sleep.

The backsides of the heads were made flat so that the doll would lay nicely when laid out to rest. Most parents put the mourning doll on display at the wake and would then leave it at the grave site. Some people often kept these effigy dolls after the funeral, placing those of infants in a crib, periodically changing their clothes, and otherwise treating them like a real baby.

To simulate the feel of a real child, the makers stuffed them with sand and heavy cloth to give them a more realistic feel when being held. Sometimes, parents had the doll,  itself, framed. Effigies of older children consisted of just the head and shoulders. All of them had flat backs, so that they could be placed in a picture frame.

Many Victorian girls had some sort of doll. They used them, much as little girls do today, to play house and thus practice social interactions. By the late 19th century, people recognized that childhood was a time for play, but that play also came with instruction. Little girls play-acted tea parties and courtships, and learned the expectations and rules of femininity. Of course, family members encouraged them to dote on baby dolls like they were their own, preparing girls to become good wives and mothers. But there was another role that dolls prepared girls for—funerals.

Wax effigies weren’t the only death-related dolls associated with Victorian children. Parents often gave their daughters “Death Kits,” which included a doll and miniature coffin. In play, the child would then practice dressing the doll, laying it out for visitation by placing it in the coffin, and planning a funeral. She might also be expected to practice attending to the grief of the doll’s mourners. When young Victorian women became adults, they would have most likely been asked to care for dead family members.



A kit would include a doll with black mourning clothes and a doll-sized coffin. Just as in real life, the little girl would prepare the doll for a wake and funeral, displaying it for mourners near the body of the dead child. Sometimes the effigy would be a full bodied doll, its body weighted with sand so as to feel more realistic, and with a flat back so as to lie down nicely in something like a tiny coffin. Dolls of older children might just be a head and shoulders, with the back of the head and torso flattened so it could be framed.

After the funeral the doll would either be left at the child’s grave or kept in the home, perhaps displayed in a glass coffin. Often cared for much like a real child, the mourning doll might be placed in a bed or crib and have its clothes regularly changed. Occasionally, parents would have a full-sized effigy made of their dead child to place in their bedroom.

Although many of these dolls didn’t survive the years, those that did were usually lovingly kept by the parents, often displayed in the bed of the deceased and cared for and re-dressed as though they were the deceased. Those that remain today were preserved in large glass boxes and, typically, depict a child between birth and three years.

Wax mourning dolls lost their popularity as tastes changed and the First World War began in the early 20th century. This is another one of those bizarre Victorian customs that has faded into history.

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Deck the Halls Victorian Style

QUESTION: I see a lot of references to the nostalgia of an old-fashioned Victorian Christmas. Just how great were Christmas celebrations back then and what did they do?

ANSWER: While what you read and see on T.V. about how the Victorians celebrated Christmas is often exaggerated, many of the holiday traditions we still practice today began back then.
 
With luck,  there was snow. Twinkling, sparkling, clean, white, heart-warming old-fashioned snow. Nothing reminds us of an old-fashioned Christmas like snow. Just enough to coat the brick sidewalks, to dust the backs of the horses, to lightly stick to the long velvet gowns and the top hats, to put a glow around the Christmas tree lights. For this was the essence of a Victorian  Christmas. During most years, many northern locations had many more than a dusting.

During the Victorian era from 1837 to 1901, people celebrated  Christmas with special family gatherings, feasting, embellishing the home with decorations, and gift giving in increasing abundance. Victorians loved to decorate for the holidays. A giant fir tree, adorned with dried hydrangeas in shades of rose and pale green, lacy fans, white silk roses—a symbol of the Virgin Mary—German glass balls, and delicate handmade paper ornaments, held  together with lace garland, woven with ribbon and strung fresh cranberries, stood in the parlor. Many people believe that the Christmas tree evolved from the Paradise tree, a fir hung with red apples and wafers, representing the host, which represented the Garden of Eden in a medieval miracle play about Adam and Eve performed on December 24.

Arrangements of fresh greens and holly, a pagan custom adapted by Christians, decorated Victorian homes. The color green came to symbolize the Christian belief in eternal life through Christ. Legend says that Jesus' crown of thorns was plaited from holly. It's said that, before the crucifixion, the berries of the holly were white, but afterward, they turned crimson, like drops of blood.

Greens hung from chandeliers. Pine roping, wrapped with  pearls and pink moire taffeta bows, draped the grand staircase.  Perhaps a small wooden tree covered with prisms stood on a marble-top  table. Another, covered in intricate origami birds, might have stood on a hall table. The crowning touch was a large welcoming wreath that hung on the vestibule door flanked by alabaster urns filled with gold tinged twisted willow and red poinsettias. But the most important part of the Victorian celebration was the family's creche, which featured carved figures of Mary, Joseph and the Christ Child set in a miniature village, complete with meadows, fences, windmills and ponds. flanked by poinsettias. Many believe St. Francis of Assisi created the first creche using live animals in 1223.

Gift giving played an important role in Victorian celebrations. The lady of the house would smile as she peeled back the tissue covering a heavily embossed sterling silver dresser set or opened a box in which a pair of gold and amethyst earrings nestled. On the more practical side, she might have received a steel chatelaine, a chain which clipped to the waist and held keys, a pencil, and a button hook. For a special evening out, she might have been given  a dress cape of black silk velvet trimmed with jet beads and ostrich feathers.

Children often received books, considered appropriate for their educational or moral value. Or perhaps a doll's china tea service and sewing equipment for the girls, and miniature tools for the boys to help prepare them for adulthood. An extra special gift for the whole family might have been a stereopticon viewer with slides of exotic places.

Men weren't left out. To go walking, a man might receive a gold-tipped cane, or a brass bicycle lamp, reflecting the favorite pastimes of Victorian gentlemen. Or he might receive a fine ivory meerschaum pipe or a bowler hat by Stetson.

All of the above was fine and dandy for wealthy Victorians, but for the majority of people who worked long hours for subsistence wages—not unlike Bob Cratchet in Charles Dickens’ beloved story “A Christmas Carol”—life was a daily drudgery and Christmas, for many, was just another day of the year, albeit one they had off.   

Nesting Mothers

QUESTION: My mother has a substantial collection of what I call “Nesting Mothers.” These are the little Russian nesting dolls that often appear at flea markets. One day, this collection will be mine, so I’d like to know more about them. When and where did they originate? Are they valuable? And are there different kinds?

ANSWER: Those are all good questions. First, the correct name for your mom’s Russian nesting dolls is Matryoshka dolls, also sometimes referred to as Matreshka dolls. And while they’re commonly associated with Russia, they didn’t originate there.

A professional artist and folk crafts painter named Sergei Malyutin, who worked on the Abramtsevo estate of Savva I. Mamontov, made the first sketches of a nesting doll based on one his wife brought home from a visit to Honshu, Japan, in the latter part of the 19th century. However, the Japanese say that it was a Russian monk who first brought the idea of making nesting dolls to Japan. Whatever the case, Russian craftsmen liked the idea, and Matryoshka dolls came into being.

The first dolls looked a bit different than the ones made today. Malyutin intended his doll to depict a round-faced peasant girl with beaming eyes. He dressed her in a sarafan—a floor-length traditional Russian peasant jumper dress held up by two straps—and gave her carefully styled slicked-down hair largely hidden under a colorful babushka or bandanna. He placed other figures, either male or female, each smaller then the one before, inside the largest doll, dressing them in kosovorotkas, or Russian blouses fastened on one side, shirts, poddyovkas, or men’s long-waisted coats, and aprons. He planned to have the smallest, innermost doll, traditionally a baby, turned from a single piece of wood. But it was Vasily Zvyozdochkin who made the first doll set in Moscow towards the end of 1890 and made the Matryoshka doll a reality.

Mamontov's wife presented the dolls at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900, where they won a bronze medal. Soon after, craftsmen in several other Russian towns began making them and shipping them around the world.

So where did the name for these dolls come from? At the end of 19th century, Matrena was one of the popular female names in Russia. Derived from the Latin root matrena, it means, "mother," “respected lady," or "mother of the family." Placing one figure inside another was also a fitting symbol of fertility and perpetuation. People also refer to these dolls as "babushka dolls", "babushka" meaning "grandmother" or "elderly woman" and also the name of the bandana worn by peasant women at the time.

Matryoshka dolls aren’t easy to make. It requires a lot of skill. Many a craftsman has given up after trying to create one. In the beginning, those who did know how to fashion these dolls kept the process a secret. 

First it’s important to choose the proper type of wood. Because of its softness, lime wood is generally chosen, less often alder or birch. It’s important to cut the wood at the right time, when it’s neither too dry nor too dump. Only an expert can determine when it's just right. Each piece of wood goes through as many as 15 separate operations. The craftsman creates the smallest doll in the series—the one that cannot be taken apart—first.

Once the smallest doll has been made, the craftsman starts on the next figure into which that first doll will fit. He cuts a piece of wood to the necessary height and then cuts it in half to form a top and bottom section. He works on the bottom section of the doll first, removing the wood from the inside of both sections of the second doll so that the smaller doll will fit snugly inside. A skilled craftsman, by the way, doesn’t bother to make measurements but relies solely on experience. Afterwards, he repeats the process, making a slightly larger doll into which the previous two will fit.


When the craftsman finishes each doll, he covers it with starchy glue that fills in any hollow areas in its surface. Then he polishes the dolls to a smooth finish to enable the painter to spread the paint evenly. After fashioning and finishing the wooden dolls, the craftsman hands it on to a painter who then gives the dolls their inimitable style.

The number of dolls held one inside the other varies from 2 to 60. There’s no limit to the size of these dolls. Some made today are quite large and hold many others within.

Much of the artistry is in the painting of each doll, which can be very elaborate. The dolls often follow a theme which may vary, from fairy tale characters to Soviet leaders. Originally, doll makers used themes drawn from tradition or fairy tale characters, in keeping with the craft tradition, but since the 20th century, they have embraced a larger range, including flowers, churches, icons, folk tales, family themes, religious subjects, and even Soviet and American political leaders.

The craft of making Matryoshka dolls gradually spread from Moscow to other cities and towns, including Semenov, Polkhovskiy Maidan, Vyatka, and Tver'. Each locality developed its own style and form of decoration.

As with other crafts, the Russian Government under Communism strictly controlled doll making and selling. But political changes at the end of the 1980s gave artisans new possibilities and freedoms. They could now make their dolls without fear.

A painter named Sikorsky was one of the first whose dolls became popular with the public. His dolls bring the highest prices, with individual sets costing as much as $3,000. His access stimulated other artists, and since then, Matryoshka doll making has been on the rise. 

For more information on Matryroshka dolls, go to Nesting Dolls.

Superman Returns Again...and Again...and Again

QUESTION: When I was a kid, I had a Superman lunchbox. Over the years, I forgot all about it, but recently, as I was going through some boxes in my attic, I discovered it again. If I remember correctly, it’s from 1954. Can you tell me anything about it and does it have any value or should I just put it out with the trash?

ANSWER: You had better take a closer look at that old lunchbox before you toss it out. This particular metal lunchbox, which includes a thermos bottle, depicts Superman doing battle with a robot and inclusive of the original thermos. One like it is presently for sale on eBay for $2,150. The lunchbox, considered rarer than most, joins other Superman collectibles, many of which have gone up in value in recent years. This is particularly the situation when it comes to rare Superman comic books. Depending on their condition and scarcity, the classic ones often fetch big bucks. The 64-page first edition from 1939, containing The Complete Story of the Daring Exploits of the One and Only Superman, including the four Superman stories from Action Comics No. 1-4, sold at auction for $26,000.01 a few years ago. And just the Action Comics #1 sold for $1 million in February 2010.

American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster created Superman in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio. Detective Comics, Inc., later D.C. Comics, bought the rights to the Superman story and debuted him in June of 1938 in Action Comics #1. At the time, America needed some type of hero, even a make-believe one. The Great Depression, a devastating Great Plains drought, and a swelling uneasiness about Nazism had wrenched people's spirits. The arrival of the "Man of Steel" offered a welcome fantasy for kids disheartened by the country’s dismal state of affairs. Over the decades, he subsequently appeared in various radio serials, television programs, films, newspaper strips, and video games.

Widely considered to be an American cultural icon, Superman helped to create the superhero genre and establish its primacy within the American comic book. The character's distinctive blue, red and yellow costume, is said to have been influenced by such comic book characters as Flash Gordon and that of circus strongmen.

Rocketed to Earth as an infant by his scientist father moments before his home planet’s destruction, he was discovered and adopted by a Kansas farmer and his wife, then raised as Clark Kent who later became Superman’s alter ego.

Siegel and Shuster envisioned their character as one who would right wrongs, fighting for social justice and against tyranny. In the original stories, Siegel and Shuster made Superman rough and aggressive. The character attacked and terrorized wife beaters, profiteers, gangsters. Later writers have softened the character and instilled a sense of idealism and moral code of conduct. Although not as cold-blooded as the early Batman, the Superman featured in the comics of the 1930s is unconcerned about the harm his strength may cause, tossing villainous characters in such a manner that fatalities would presumably occur, although these were seldom shown explicitly on the page. By late 1940, editor Whitney Ellsworth instituted a code of conduct that banned Superman from ever killing again.

Today, Superman is commonly seen as a brave and kind-hearted hero with a strong sense of justice, morality and righteousness. After all, he’s the hero of a younger age group. Young people got hooked on Superman's exploits right away. Tales of his origin, superhuman powers and good-over-evil conquest' adventures were just part of the enticement. His, alter-ego as mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent with love interest Lois Lane added human interest to the stories as well.

With the release of the next Superman film, there will be another deluge of Superman collectibles. Currently, there are nearly 131,000 Superman items up for auction, in both vintage and newer examples. There’s a huge array of Superman collectibles available to collectors, ranging from toys, games, dolls, lunchboxes; jewelry, clothing and watches to electronics, wall art, statues, records and DVDs.

The earliest paraphernalia, a button proclaiming membership in the Supermen of America club, appeared in 1939. By 1940 the amount of merchandise available increased dramatically, with jigsaw puzzles, paper dolls, bubble gum and trading cards available, as well as wooden or metal figures. By 1942, the character of Superman had been licensed to appear in other media, and the popularity of such merchandise increased. A surge of popularity seems to occur after the opening of each Superman film. The most popular Superman items on eBay seem to be from 1954, 1967, 1978, 1984, and 1998. 

Lunchboxes appeared from 1954 onward. A number of companies, including Adco, Hallmark, Thermos, King-Seeley, and Aladdin made them in either metal or plastic. While most are rectangular, there are some working-man dome-style ones.