Costume doll
Category
Dolls
Date
circa 1950 - circa 1976
Materials
Plastic doll
Measurements
244 mm (height)
Order this imageCollection
Sudbury Hall Museum of Childhood, Derbyshire
NT 658914
Summary
A mid-20th century national costume doll (also known as souvenir, world costume, tourist and foreign travel dolls) made to resemble a man in Russian national dress. The head is possibly plastic with fabric glued to it, with moulded and painted features and black wool hair; the body possibly moulded plastic; the arms plastic, jointed at the shoulders to move in unison. The doll wears a fringed bandana, a blue felt shirt trimmed with black and gold, a blue hooded jacket with hood and red revers decorated in black and gold, a red cummerbund, blue knee length breeches, black plastic knee length boots. Costume dolls representing people of different nationalities in their local dress have been made since the mid-19th century. As global travel expanded ‘world’ dolls were produced as tourist souvenirs as well as children’s toys. They appear in a variety of media, from paper to porcelain, polymer to plastic. Produced to be instantly recognisable and collectible, ‘world’ dolls can portray a stereotypical view of peoples and cultural identities.
Provenance
One doll from a collection of costume dolls donated by Mr R.T. Macfarlane in 1976.