Summary

National doll produced to represent an Austrian man, it is one of 17 sent to Monica Gates by her Austrian Grandparents. Monica began receiving these dolls in 1957, they represent various traditions and dress from eight of Austria's states. The costume of this doll is typical of men's traditional dress from the region of Tirol which generally consists of lederhosen, a felt hat (normally in green) with a band around the crown, and short jacket without lapels.

The Gates collection contains 170 national dolls from 74 different countries and some correspondence relating to the acquisition of several of the dolls. The costumes of the dolls represent national costumes from the 19th Century to the 1990s. Monica Gates collected or was given these dolls between 1957 and 1990.

These dolls were purchased as souvenirs of particular countries and like many mass produced souvenirs they are often not accurate representations of a particular country or region, and may actually better reflect neighbouring counties or regions. This occurs because costumes are often stylised and simplified resulting dolls wearing generic costume elements which are common to many countries/regions. Often the fabrics and decorations used are selected to make the dolls cheap and easy to manufacture and aesthetically pleasing. This can result in the fabrics, colours and decorations of the doll's clothing having little or no reflection of the costume associated with a particular country or region they are meant to be representative of.

Physical Description

Moulded plastic doll wearing black felt knickerbockers, cream hose and black plastic shoes. This doll has blonde synthetic hair underneath a green felt hat with a broken decorative feather on the right side. The doll is wearing a red felt jacket with green trim on the cuffs and gold embroidery on the collar, a red felt waistcoat, white shirt, black tie and a white cord sash over the jacket.

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