SIX INTERESTING RUSSIAN FOLK ART DYMKOVO ARTIST SIGNED PLAQUES, A.DENSHIN, 1940. Each manufactured

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One of the best examples of traditional Russian folk art toys are those which find their origins in the village of Dymkovo located on the Vyatka River, roughly 600 miles northeast of Moscow. The origins and development of the unique Dymkovo toy is closely linked to the annual centuries old svistoplyaska (whistle festival) held on the fourth Saturday after Easter on the banks of the River Vyatka. The first recorded mentioning of this event took place in 1811, however it is believed to have existed for some 400 years, thus dating the history of the Dymkovo toy to at least the 17th century. The inhabitants of the Dymkovo suburb traditionally manufactured many different toys and whistles for the event. Starting out as a complex ritual intertwining elements of ancient agricultural cults and religious wakes in memory of the dead, the festival gradually transformed into a spring fair and bazaar selling sweets, clay whistles, and dolls such as those offered in the following lots. The whistles took various forms including common farm animals such as ponies, ducks, pigs, sheep, geese and others. Colorful dolls depicting ladies, in traditional costumes modeled as water-carriers, nannies and wet nurses holding children, stood on the windowsills of houses in place of expensive porcelain statuettes.

To be certain the influence of porcelain production can be seen in the dolls, such as the appropriation of the water-carrier (a well-known subject covered in early Russian porcelain production) as well as the dimensions of the dolls and the white prime coatings. However, their works did not merely imitate European or Russian porcelain figurines but rather evolved into a new and original art form which reached its peak in the 19th century. For the most part, if not exclusively, the figures were produced (sculpted, fired and painted) entirely by women and young girls. Dymkovo toys are made from locally gathered red clay and manufactured in a specified order for each particular character. Female figures, for example are firstly modelled from a mortar bell. A round head, padlock-shaped arms and other details are then attached. After drying and baking, a white chalk ground diluted in milk is added and they are then finished with faux gold leaf panels and colorful paints mixed with egg yolk similar to that used to paint icons.

By the late 19th and early 20th century the handicraft fell into decline due to the influx of factory-made molded plaster statuettes, which imitated porcelain articles and was almost entirely extinct by the 1920’s. However, during the Soviet times, the Dymkovo handicraft was revived. In 1933, an artel called ??????? ??????? (The Vyatka Toy), was organized which would eventually turn into a workshop of the Artistic Fund of the RSFSR (Russian: ?????????????? ???? ?????).

Due to their somewhat fragile nature, early surviving examples such as the ones offered in the following four lots are quite scarce. Indeed few intact early examples even exist. Were it not for the discerning eye and forward thinking vision of U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Laurence Adolf Steinhardt (1892-1950) this impressive collection would not be available for future generations of collectors to study. The following four lots of the Dymkovo toys (363-366) were all collected by Steinhardt while serving as the U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union (1939-1942).