Summary

Alternative Name(s): Doll - Traditional Cypriot
Donated to the Australian Children's Folklore Collection by the High Commission of Cyprus in 1989.
National doll which forms part of the Australian Children's Folklore Collection (ACFC).
The ACFC is unique in Australia, documenting contemporary children's folklore across Australia and in other countries reaching back to the 1870s. The Collection has a strong component of research material relating to Victoria.
Dolls are among the most universal toys found throughout the world and through history. They can be as simple as a stick or piece of wood or as elaborate as a mechanical walking and talking doll. Children use dolls in role-playing where they learn and practise socialisation skills and adult responsibilities; they use dolls to play parts in imaginative games; they use dolls as 'comfort toys'; and they exercise their creativity in making their own dolls from materials found around the home. Ornamental dolls can also be used to represent aspects of cultural traditions, such as dress. This doll is dressed in the traditional costume of Cyprus and forms a set with two female dolls, also in traditional costume.

Physical Description

Wooden female doll wearing the traditional costume of Cyprus. The doll is a basic wooden design, pedastal shape at the bottom and a circular head. There are no arms or legs. The doll is dressed in a dark purple head-scarf edged with green and white braid. She has long black hair, wool, in two plaits over her shoulders. There is a gold necklace around her neck. She has a striped purple and yellow long sleeved dress with an off-white apron over the dress, both in a coarse cotton fabric. The face has been drawn on in black and red ink. Acknowledgement: Australian Children's Folklore Collection, Museum Victoria.

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