The widely spread opinion that matryoshka is an authentic Russian toy is unfortunately a mere myth. The first Russian matryoshka was turned and painted - according to a sample brought from Japan - in a Moscow toy workshop only in the 90s of the XIXth century.

The Japanese original was manufactured with a great sense of humor. It consisted of a number of figurines stacking one inside the other and representing the Japanese Wiseman Fukuruma, a bold-headed old man with an oval-shaped head - the consequence of his deep meditations.

The first Russian matryoshka represented a group of children. The eight dolls that the set consisted of depicted children of different ages: from the eldest girl (the outmost doll) with a rooster to the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes.

The first matryoshkas - manufactured by "Children Education" cartel - even though they were made for children, cost a lot of money and were quite popular among adults.

The end of the XIXth century brought with it a real "matryoshka boom". To satisfy the unexpected demand, new manufacturers emerged on the market. In less than a few years, almost the whole city of Sergiev Posad was painting matryoshkas. This city was the place that had both multitudes of experienced wood turners and the excellent raw material: birch and lime trees. The painting was done by family cartels, where even children and old people took part in the process.

As a rule, Russian matryoshkas depicted young ladies in Russian sarafans [peasant woman's dress] and shawls, holding baskets, flowers, bread-and-salt [traditional Russian sign of hospitality], etc. Matryoshkas gained considerable popularity abroad and in the beginning of the XXth century Russia started exporting the dolls in large quantities.

Matryoshka business turned out to be so profitable that a number of other matryoshka-making centers have appeared soon after the mass export has begun. The largest were based in the city of Semenov of Nizhnii Novgorod province and in the village of Polkhov-Maidan. Moreover, this was the time when first western counterfeits appeared on the market. A number of German companies, for example, were turning and painting their own nesting dolls, selling them as Russian matryoshkas.

Even though nowadays one can find matryoshkas of various unusual shapes - ball- or cone-shaped, in forms of boxes and bottle-holders - figurines imitating woman's body still remain the most popular ones. As a rule Sergiev Posad dolls are, however, wider and smaller than the Semenov-turned ones.

Besides manufacturing the so-popular-over-the-world matryoshkas depicting "Russian peasant women and young ladies", some cartels introduced historical (Kutuzov, Napoleon) and literature-based (i.e. depicting the characters of such Russian fairytales as "The Turnip", "Tsarevich Ivan", "The Goldfish") matryoshkas.

Speaking of the number of dolls in a set, the most widely spread and most popular doll has always been a five-piece matryoshka. However, one may often come across three-, seven-, ten- and fifteen-piece nesting dolls. The latter, by the way, is not the largest. In 1913 a forty-eight-piece matryoshka was made. Honestly, such a doll is a rarity. Its making requires a highly skilled wood turner; and mass production of such dolls is impossible.

Just as it was a hundred years ago, Sergiev Posad and Semenov matryoshka-painting is nowadays a family business as well. Factory-manufactured matryoshkas end up being quite uncompetitive and way too expensive. By the way, modern-day matryoshka-making is not so toxic. Pre-revolution (Bolshevik Revolution of 1917) nesting doll painters were painting in oils, Soviet factories used aniline dyes, but modern-day painters paint mostly in gouache, sometimes using watercolor and tempera. There also exist unpainted nesting dolls (poker-work and mordant are used in the making of such dolls).

Painting your own nesting doll is a challenging, laborious, but a rewarding work. Even if you simply try to copy an already-existing sample, you will inevitably end up with something different, a one of a kind piece of art.

The classic painting theme for matryoshkas is a flower theme. It is always helpful to try copy various flowers from Russian trays, cups and shawls. However, flowers are only one of the options. One may think up ornamental patterns himself/herself or find useful ideas in books, on lacquer boxes, hats, etc. What if you tried painting a nesting doll according to ornamental designs of other peoples: Asian, Arab or Nothern? Your doll would've been the only one of its kind.

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