Which country invented nesting dolls

Answer 1

1. Who was the first person to make the Russian nesting dolls?

As the story goes, the first matrioshka was made in 1890, in Sergiev Posad. Like Pinocchio it had own Mister Geppetto, even two. They were woodcarver Vasiliy Zvezdochkin (literally 'Starman') and painter Sergei Maliutin. The nesting doll's star ascended in 1900 at the Paris exhibition. So this young maiden babooshka doll is almost 120 years old. Later artist Maliutin has been elected member of the Fine Art Academy. His technically complicated landscapes and portrait paintings are famed. But simple designed first nesting doll gave birth a whole guideline of applied folk art.

• http://souvenirsfromrussia.com/index.php?id=articles&tit=nd.txt

Matryoshkas are a relatively new Russian handicraft; the first one dates from 1890, and is said to have been inspired by souvenir dolls from Japan. However, the concept of nested objects was familiar in Russia, having been applied to carved wooden apples and Easter eggs; the first Fabergé egg, in 1885, had a nesting of egg, yolk, hen, and crown.

• http://www.squidoo.com/matryoshka-Russian-nesting-dolls

Answer 2

Vasiliy Zvezdochkin and Sergei Maliutin of Russia.