Summary

National Doll produced to represent an Israeli woman, it was given to Monica Gates in 1958 by a friend who had lived and worked on a kibbutz for a number of years. The doll was made by the Yemen Jews who immigrated to Israel. Between June 1949 and September 1950, most of Yemen's Jewish population was transported to Israel in Operation Magic Carpet.

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

Doll with composition body and head. Facial features are paint with eyes closed. Hair is brown thread, almost covered with a long red scarf reaching to the waist. The garment is full length with sleeves to the wrist, with stripes of red, green, white,and yellow. Necklace is made of silver metal in two rolls. A woven basket is made of yellow and brown raffia. Black under trousers have narrow rings of red, yellow and green near the ankle. Doll is sitting on a three-legged wooden stool.

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