Matrioska Matriosca Nesting Doll Russian Doll How to evaluate How much is worth Value Price Quality Evaluation Cost Rare Old Handpainted Signed Original - MatrioskaOnLine
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How much is it worth?
How much is a nesting doll
How much ...?
One of the most common questions that occur
when you have in your hands a nesting dolls..
First we must know that altough in Italy a nesting doll is
considered a singular thing, not common or even rare, in Russia it is an
industrial product made for over a century in huge volumes and exported all
over the world.
In the town where it all originated, Sergev Posad, located on the
outskirts of Moscow, there are many laboratories that every day produce
thousands of dolls that are sold from the souvenirs stalls to the finest shops selling
craft works from Russia.
Below I will list some common places that often, intentionally or
naively, are used to assign a high value to a nesting doll.
It's old ...
Unless it is not a nesting doll of the early '900, owning one of twenties, thirties of fourthies means nothing from the economic point of view, so the
chronological age does not add any value; vice versa, if it suffer time deterioration (cracks in the wood or in the
painting, fading, dulling and damage due to exposure to atmospheric agents such
as dust, sunlight, smoke, etc.), can have further depreciated the value.
Usually the year in which it was produced is written on the
support base of the first doll with other information such as the author's
name, number of parts or the city where it was made.
It's hand painted ...
It is normal! A nesting doll is hand painted although recently the technology has allowed to realize dolls printed by
automatic painting machines or coated with thin film vinyl.
In the first case, we will be in front of dolls with very simple
paintings and without depth of detail and with a reduced number of colors.
In the second, you will face a beautiful detailed painting, with
shades and color gradients, and just by looking carefully you will be able to
realize the deception. In this regard, please read the page as evaluate them.
So, in
spite of these two cases, all the
most simple and cheap dolls are hand-painted.
To paint a doll are usually used acrylic water colors which are protected
by a transparent coat based on polyurethane.
For those with the greatest value is used a more complex and
expensive procedure that is the lacquering.
It's signed ...
Excluding industrial nesting dolls manufactured in assembly lines,
where for the same doll more people simultaneously paint the different pieces
that make it up, for the other it is customary that is who made the painting to
affix the signature onto the bottom of the first doll, like a painter that puts his
signature in the corner of the painting, and so its presence does not indicate
any kind of value.
Only in the last 20 years have appeared nesting dolls artists,
whose works, featured by high quality and
mastery, have gained fame and international prestige; back in the Soviet times, instead, the political condition of
the country did not allow to the single person to emerge professionally as it happens now in modern Russia.
It's original russian ...
A nesting doll is Russian par
excellence; nesting
doll coming from other parts do not exist, unless they are made like toys in different materials including
plastics.
In some eastern websites that sell a wide variety of products nesting
dolls can be found, but they have nothing to deal with the "real ones”; they simply replicate the concept of the dolls nested
one inside the other without paying attention to the artistic value of the
object.
With the breakup of the Soviet Union and the birth of many
independent republics, actually some dolls can no longer be defined as original
Russian because they have been made for example in Ukrain; they are only a small percentage tough.
Conditions that may affect the final value
- Artistic quality - High level of precision and detail of the painting. Painting that wraps entirely all the pieces.
- Finishing - Lacquer which gives a remarkable transparency, shine and softness to the touch and also protects the painting from light and atmospheric agents.
- Number of pieces - Need to be evaluated in conjunction with the quality of the painting, but nesting dolls formed by a high number of pieces generally have greater value.
- Artistic quality - Simple paintings made with broad strokes and few colors; painting that covers only a part of the doll leaving the bare wood exposed or covered with a solid color or simple patterns.
- Damage - Any type of damage; wood cracked or chipped, faded, damaged, or opaque painting etc. ...
- Finishing - Pieces that do not fit together or are difficult to separate or otherwise that are not closed; steps between the two parts, rough and porous wood.
To conclude ...
It's difficult to specify a value because for artistic products
values can have very wide ranges; a 10 pieces nesting doll can be worth 300€ or
3000€.
For pieces meant to be part of collections is at least 300/400 € for the most simple and composed of few
pieces, growing to 2000/3000 € for the most important ones.
In addition there are special nesting dolls (museum) that for
their artistic quality or the high
number of parts which they are made up of can be worth many thousands of €uros.
It should be noted that in Italy this type of collecting is very
small, so it is very difficult to sell a nesting doll and often the price is
not decided by the seller but by the purchaser.
In other countries, especially the United States, it is very
popular and there are specialised shops, auctions, exchange meetings, price lists etc.
