Kimport dolls

Doll Talk for Collectors Vol 19 Number 4 1972

The Kimport doll company of Independence Missouri began selling quality foreign dolls through the pages of its Doll Talk catalog in 1936. Initially the distinct catalog dedicated to souvenir dolls was called Foreign Folk Dolls. It had a colourful cover and was filled with descriptions of foreign dolls and illustrations by Ruth McKim. Later the catalog was called Kimport Dolls from the Whole Wide World  and the cover was plain printed paper. Kimport also sold at travelling doll shows and large department stores.

In  the 1930's and 40's Kimport had sourced ,what they called, Slavic dolls from the Near East Industries based in Athens.* These were made by refugees and included dolls depicting Montenegro,Serbia and Macedonia. 

World War 2 and then the Cold War resulted in supply drying up but in 1957 Kimport received a letter from Yugoslavia's national handicraft society indicating dolls were available via the state operated collective or cooperative association, known as Narodna Radinost.  So in the spring of 1957 Kimport began to import  dolls from Yugoslavia via  Narodna Radinost.

The intial dolls Kimport receive, as pictured below, were different to the dolls that became available three months later and which are the dolls I collect. The intial dolls were stockinette stretched over rubber, have a plumper look  and wear a more simplified costume. These dolls still crop up today, often with the label Rukotvorine ( which means handicrafts)  Zagreb, Croatia. However by July 1959 these dolls seem to have largely been replaced by a different style of cloth over wire armature of the type featured in this blog.

Doll Talk for Collectors Vol 11 Number 11  1957

The dolls were to prove a popular line for Kimport and the 1962-63 edition of Kimport Dolls From the Whole Wide World says of the dolls

All are outstanding dolls, rich with handwork, embroidery and braid. Features are attractively embroidered on silk faces, dolls are well made with real leather shoes.

In 1972 the range graced the front cover with three 8" female dolls from Serbia,Croatia and Macedonia, I have included a photograph of the 3 of these I own. Kimport catalogs often have names for the dolls and these 3 are Yulka of Macedonia, Velinka of Croatia and Yelena of Serbia. The Kimport catalogs only list the 5" and 8" sizes in the range. There was a larger size, 12-13 inches, and Susan Hedrick in World Colors Dolls and Dress  1997 Hobby House Press Maryland, pg. 175, speculates this size may not have been widely imported to the US.

The Narodna Radinost dolls do not have the blue and white Kimport Dolls cloth tag which is often found on Kimport dolls.** Sometimes they have on their Narodna Radinost tag, or on a separate paper tag, the numbers assigned to the dolls in the Kimport Doll Talk catalog eg 862A,863A and 864A. In that way it is possible to directly link them to Kimport.

Kimport was such a fantastic company and although it is no more many souvenir doll collectors continue to learn from the catalogs and gain pleasure from the beautiful quality dolls.


* Near East Industries Museum Interesting website on the Near East Industries. Interestingly Kimport retained the names given to the Near East dolls for their newly arrived counterparts eg Yelena from Serbia, Yulka from Macedonia and Hamilear from Montenegro.
** Since writing this post I have seen a Croatian female doll c.1965 with a Kimport label sewn onto the petticoat.