Sunday, May 04, 2008

Antique Kokeshi Dolls

Here are a couple of shots of my current collection of antique kokeshi dolls. I tend to like the ones that are hand painted but the striped one did grab my eye. Some of these, I have had for a few months and then some I have had for a few days.

I didn't get any on the most recent antique expedition, but I plan to go back there. Rumor has it that sometimes the owner gets in the itsy bitsy ones that are almost as small as a grain of rice...this is just something I have to see.


Amongst my group of friends, the antique ones are becoming much more popular than the newer ones you can find at the various gift shops. I like both but the newer ones have to be unique to really get my attention.

Some of the antique ones have heads that squeak when you twist them...the owner gave us the impression that the sound is specific either to the doll or to the family that made (makes) that particular style of doll. We were quite astonished when he grabbed one of the dolls and squeaked its head but once we knew what he was doing, we readily walked around the store twisting doll heads ourselves.


Some of the other antique ones have bobble heads. You can see in one of my pictures that the head of one of mine is tilted off to the side...that is a bobble head. I found a bunch of small antique dolls in a clearance bin at a store one time and I am planning to send some of them to the States to friends and family...I think there are some bobble heads in there too.

Note: I left the links to the bigger pictures in so you could see the detail if you wanted.

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Two Years Ago on In My Words...Whew!!!

5 comments:

Girl said...

They are very cute. I'd never seen one before.

I love the red stripey one.

Haha said...

Mishka those a marvelous - you are already on your way to a fabulous collection and now I will have fun seeing if I can add to it! I wonder if the Japanese were the first to invent "Bobble Heads," what do you think?

... said...

JAG-the stripey one is distinctive a specific family of makers in mainland Japan....it is very cool how you can track the history by the family.

Haha-don't know if I am actually "collecting" them, but it would be cool to see if you can find them in the US anywhere...I would be curious if the bobble head did come from Japan...since a lot of our knick knacks were made in Japan in the 50s and 60s. These dolls in some cases are very old....not mine specifically but some of those made out there are close to the turn of the century.

One Wink at a Time said...

These remind me of the little erasers that I used to have in grade school. The erasers themselves were triangular and white with colored cellophane wrappers which were the clothes and they had little painted wooden heads, much like the doll on the far right in the second picture. Thanks for that memory :-)

Kipik said...

You have a realy very nice selection! I find the older large dolls are very beautiful objects, painted and made with exquisit taste and artistry. I found one in an antique shop and love her to death!