Summary

National doll produced to represent a Dutch woman. It was given to Monica Gates circa1970s-1980s. While the doll is female the costume of this doll is typical of men's folk dress in the Netherlands which generally consists of wide woollen pants with silver buttons on the front square flap, a shirt, jacket, cap and wooden clogs. Women's folk dress in the Netherlands which generally consists of a long skirt, blouse, an apron, perhaps a shawl, some form of headwear either a hat or head scarf and wooden clogs. Regional differences for both men and women are shown through the use of various colours, embroidery and the type of headwear.

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 plastic body with wooden clogs and black felt trousers, red felt shirt and black felt hat. Around the neck is a red ribbon with metal decoration. On the front of the trousers are two round metal decorative buttons.

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