Danish Yugoslavian dolls

     

These two 8 inch dolls are a little bit unusual in that whilst they were made in Yugoslavia they are wearing Danish folk costumes. The doll in the brown dress features in a Mark Farmer catalogue from the 1960's which indicates her origins. She is a fantastic doll with beautiful floral embroidery detail , tiny green buttons and leather shoes topped with leather roses.

The doll with the fair hair does not have any markings but I have seen another one for sale online which did have Yugoslavia printed on the skirt. She has short sleeves and the method used to make the arms is different to other Narodna Radinost dolls  and perhaps not entirely successful as the arms are a little too long.

Mark Farmer Co catalog Winter 1962-63

It is hard to say why these dolls were made. Perhaps, impressed by the quality of the Yugoslavian range, US doll importers asked for the dolls to be made. Perhaps the doll makers wanted to test the waters and branch out into other folk costumes although this seems unlikely. In my time doll collecting I have only ever seen the brown dress doll once and the fair haired doll twice which could lead to the conclusion they were not big sellers. However I do have plenty of other dolls I have only seen once and I am limited to buying online given my location.

In any event they are quirky additions to my collection.

* Note added April 2020

The two beautiful dolls below come from the collection of Linda Holderbaum, a doll collector, author and museum professional. Linda has kindly allowed me to feature her Danish Yugoslavian dolls. Of interest to me is the apron of the fair haired doll which features an embroidered tape with red flowers on it. Variations of this tape are also used on the dolls wearing Croatian folk dress and I have added one below.

This doll is featured in a Mark Farmer catalog which has no date on it. The silk tape which trims her hat is especially lovely as is the scarf around her neck with the brooch detail.

Mark Farmer Co catalog