Russian Nesting Dolls Matpewka "Mother" 5 Pc Hand Carved Wood & Hand Painted AK

Vintage Core Russian Matpewka "Mother" 5 Pc Nesting Dolls Wood & Hand Painted. "Matpewka" (Muh-tryesh-kuh) derives from the word "mother". In Russia, some of these are family heirlooms for many generations. The dolls represent family continuity through generations & a long fruitful life. The number of dolls which stack in a set represent the long life of the family, as in the old tradition each generation would create an even bigger family doll to stack the older dolls inside. The generations are thus depicted as each doll comes out of the doll before it, & the family unity is seen by the whole group being similar and yet each different, just the way families are. Traditionally, the grandfather would carve the dolls, the grandmother would paint the dolls, which would be given to their infant grandchildren to symbolize family life & fertility. The earliest known still in existence, is housed in the Hermitage museum in St Petersburg, and is over 300 years old. The actual origin of stacking dolls is uncertain, but some say the tradition began in the monastery at Sergei Posad, (called "Zagorsk") during communist times. There are monks were said to have carved three stacking eggs to teach children the Christian concept of the Trinity. The matricushka dolls displayed in the house of Russia and you know, Alaska come from several different regions and artistic backgrounds. There are traditional dolls from Tver, Semenova, Polk Medan, Belarus and Sergei Posad (Zagorsk). Each o