Doll Grading

“From Author Artists to Workshop produced dolls, our 5 Star grading of Russian Dolls clearly shows collectors the origin of the dolls...”

Because of the growing popularity of Russian Dolls with more and more peolple starting to collect them, we have developed a five star quality grading system so that everyone can be made more aware about the origins of the dolls being purchased.
The 5 Star classification of qualities are as follows:

5-Star Rating

Factory Dolls and students work - *

Not a factory in the conveyer belt sense of the word, but these dolls are produced in larger companies that employ 25+ artists.
Usually there is a smaller range of designs to choose from but they are usually produced in much larger quantities. Although the dolls are still hand painted, the blank dolls tend to be ‘machined’ on site.

One example of a factory doll would be the world famous Red and Yellow doll known as the Semionov Doll. The design of this doll at the Semionov Factory is regularly produced in anything from a single solid piece for key rings or up to 20 dolls in a set for tourist shops and attractions across Russia. 

Workshop Dolls - **

These dolls are produced in a smaller company of about 24 artists or less. The dolls from a workshop are completely hand produced and unlike the factory dolls, they are also hand turned by expert wood turners. Not being on such a large scale, these dolls are usually sold within the local area and designs reflect the recognized regional traditions.

Qualified Artist - ***

Can be either a single artists or a small group of artists working as a cooperative. These artists usually have an original but repeated set style, and tend to produce sets for small to medium quantity commission work. Dolls are of consistent quality.

Professional Artist - ****

Single Artists producing high quality dolls in small quantity for private commissioned orders or for best quality workshop pieces.

Author Artist - *****

This is the best range with artists producing some of the finest work available. Work is truly original with largest percentage of dolls being complete ‘one-off’ dolls.

Our range is very extensive, but very unique as all the Matryoshka Dolls have been hand painted and created by artists working in the region traditionally known as The Golden Ring of Russia.

"A gift inside a gift
inside a gift..."