The World of Costume Dolls and Wooden Toys

On behalf of the Arne Nixon Center, we thank Karin and Robert Larka for their generous donation of Russian costume dolls and wood carved toys.

Viewhere:Karin and Robert Larka Collection

Invitational visits to the Soviet Union offered Arne Nixon the opportunity to enrich lives of those around the world. He shared stories to children and made presentations to university groups, Soviet Publishers, editors, and others who worked with children’s literature. These items were purchased by the Larka family while traveling with Arne Nixon and Karin Sabul. Ms. Sabul, from Tallinn, Estonia, was their tour guide during a trip to Russia in 1987.

Included in this donation are 21 Bogorodskoe Wood Carved Toys.

Bogorodskoe Wood Carving is a folk craft of carved toys and sculpture from soft wood—linden, alder, and aspen. It has existed in the village of Bogorodskoe (presently located in Zagorsk Raion, Moscow Oblast, Russian Federation) probably since the 16th or 17th century. In the beginning of the 20th century the master craftsmen united into an artel known as the Bogorodskoe Engraver from 1923; in 1960 it was transformed into the Bogorodskoe Factory of Artistic Wood Carving. There is a professional technical school. Until the end of the 19th century Bogorodskoe wood carving preserved the traditional technique of shallow cuts, which revealed only the necessary details for the characterization of personages in the figurines of people and animals and moving toys (“bobbers,” “blacksmiths,” and so on). These details were often emphasized with bright painting. At the turn of the 20th century, the technique of cutting was replaced by more detailed working of the figures, which are then assembled into compositions and daily scenes on themes from fables, fairy tales, popular prints, poems, and, in Soviet times, from contemporary events and history as well.

Masters of Bogorodskoe wood carving include F. S. Balaev, A. G. Chushkin, V. S. Zinin, I. K. Stulov, M. A. Pronin, and M. F. Barinov.

Vasilenko, V. M. Russkaia narodnaia rez’ba i ros’pis po derevu XVIII-XX vv. Moscow, 1960.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserve