This is a beautiful glass ornament that is detailed incredibly well. This ornament measures: 5H X 3W X 3D and is Mouth-Blown, Hand-Painted in Poland.

At first glance, the Matryoshka might look like an ancient folk character, but in fact, it only appeared in 1890 - and it has real “authors”, turner (lathe operator) Vasily Zvezdochkin and painter Sergei Malutin. Both men worked at the Savva Mamontov workshop for kids. Mamontov was a famous Russian industrialist, merchant and patron of the arts.

According to one version of Matryoshka’s creation, the wife of Mamontov once brought a wooden figure to the workshop. It depicted a Japanese wise man and contained five figurines of his students inside. Inspired by this multi-layer idea, Zvezdochkin carved eight wooden figures, and Malutin painted them.

Another version says that they created the doll themselves (there had already been some examples of such figures with “surprise” inside before – resembling Easter eggs), and the “Japanese origin” legend only appeared in Soviet times.

In any case, the first Matryoshka resembled a lady in a shawl holding a black cockerel. Inside were figurines of boys and girls, with the last one being a baby. This doll is still preserved at the Toy Museum in Sergiev Posad outside Moscow.

For more information please visit: https://www.rbth.com/arts/332116-matryoshka-russian-doll-facts